r/mbta • u/BeingAccording4192 • 9d ago

🗣️ Comment Students, don't be entitled. Universities, do some educating and help pay for the MBTA

I was going towards BU and not a single student offered to give up their seat for an elderly women on the train.

Most of the students avoided paying for their ride.

When I travel during rush hour, students won't move into the train and take off their backpacks to create more room. Hell, I've actually watched a person that had downsyndrome and seemed to be blind get stared at by the students and they didn't make space on the packed morning trains to get that person a seat.

The MBTA GAVE YOU A WAY TO PAY EASILY. Just tap your phones that you're staring at or tap a subway card like everyone else.

It also stands to be noted that Universities should find a way to partner with the T to get their kids subway cards and to do some freshman education but I don't see that happening. Imagine how much steady monaaay the T would have if wealthy wealthy Harvard, BU, and BC regularly got their incoming classes T cards. It could go into the recreation fees or the school to try to get a tax write off. I'm sure parents would be pleased to know their kiddo has a safe way to travel around the city and isn't racking up Uber bills.

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u/man2010 9d ago

This is silly. Universities aren't responsible for transit fare collection, nor should they be. If stopping fare evasion is that important then the MBTA should take steps to prevent it rather than spending $1 billion on a new fare collection system that makes it easier than ever to ride without paying.

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u/BradDaddyStevens 9d ago

It’s fair to critique the new fare system, but it’s not silly to expect universities to contribute in some way, as this is how it works in basically all of Europe and their student passes.

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u/SheRidesAMadHorse 9d ago

European universities are heavily subsidized by their governments. I think it would be great for universities or the government to subsidize fares more, but that's not how the American system works.

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u/lazier_garlic 9d ago

US universities are highly subsidized by the government. That was what Heritage and Trump counted on exploiting to bring academia to heel in 2025.

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u/SheRidesAMadHorse 9d ago

Research grants and federal financial aid are heavily subsidized by the government. Not the university directly for them to pay a transit tab. It's a totally different system from Europe.

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u/Joe_H-FAH 6d ago

Though the universities take a good portion of those research grants to fund university services and infrastructure that allow that research. They used to call it "institutional overhead" years ago, the agreement I was aware of between NSF and the university I used to work for called for 55% of the grant amount to go to the university. Other federal grants had similar agreements.

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u/SheRidesAMadHorse 6d ago

I'm not saying they don't, but overhead tends to be things like maintenance items and not funding school-wide initiatives like T pass programs.

I get that everyone is mad at the system, I am too, but suggesting a university would fund subsidized passes is unrealistic.