Crimson and Gold Connection; Dr. Steve Erwin

Welcome to Crimson & Gold Connection, keeping you connected to the people and current events at Pittsburgh State University. This is Trent Johnson, thanks for joining us for Crimson & Gold Connection. Today, our guest is Vice President for Student Life at Pittsburgh State University, Dr. Steve Irwin. Thanks so much for joining us today. We're here to talk about the Gorilla Shuttle, which is a new service on the campus of Pittsburgh State University. Just touch base on what that is a little bit. Well, for many years, we had thought about the opportunity to perhaps have a shuttle service, some sort of internal transportation service on campus, and between equipment and staffing costs, it just seemed too expensive. And after a number of years of collaborating with C-CAP on some other transportation initiatives for students, it became apparent to us that we might have the same opportunity to do that with them on some sort of shuttle service dedicated to the campus. It basically runs from 7.30 in the morning till 2.30 in the afternoon each day, the classes in session, and it's really designed to move people from the eastern to the western portions of the campus in vice versa, to allow people maybe to leave their car wherever they parked it, if they need to get about campus, or to park in less congested areas and take the shuttle into the heart of campus.

How many stops does the shuttle make per day, and where does it all commute to? There are 10 stops on the route. The easternmost terminates at the student rec center, and it works its way west with the westernmost point being at the library, and then back to the SRC. Who can use this show? Is this a primarily student shuttle? No, it's really meant for anyone on campus. It's paid for out of parking fees, which everyone in parks on campus pays in some format. And so, whether you're a student, faculty, or staff, we'd encourage you to utilize it. How did the guerrilla shuttle program kind of become a reality from just a thought? Again, we've partnered with C-CAP on many other kinds of transportation initiatives. They provide our safe ride, our guest bus, our game day, safe transportation programs, and we recognized that we really couldn't afford the equipment or the drivers to staff this, and so we approached them about an additional partnership in this effort, and they were very excited to work with us.

What has the feedback been like from commuters that have utilized this service so far? We haven't gathered formal feedback in the form of a survey, which we intend to do soon, but anecdotal feedback from students who are using it, from faculty and staff who've used it, and others who are aware of it, seems to be very positive. I think it's a step in the right direction. They recognize that it's an initial effort that we're likely going to continue to refine it. Hopefully someday we're adding an additional vehicle to quick and the pace of things, but we're pretty pleased with the feedback and the ridership that we have so far. What have you in the university been doing to try and get the word out that this new service is available to people? We have sent quite a few bulky emails, of course, and sometimes the level of effectiveness of that can vary. We're in the process developing a transportation website off the university webpage that will not only give information about the shuttle, but also all the other transportation efforts that we have available on campus.

We're also looking at developing more in terms of the ability to track where the shuttle is in the university app and some things like that. We've done some publicity and print publicity in the residence halls and other apartment complexes, but we want to continue to work in the air of social media and other ways of alerting people to its availability. If we look at this as kind of a cause and effect, the effect would be getting the guerrilla shuttle service intact and ready to go. What would the cause be? What were the determining factors of needing this? I think ever since we built really the Kansas Technology Center, which was considered considerably east of the main campus, there's been talk of some sort of transportation around campus into various points. So I think that was as a basis of it, but as parking challenges increase, we know that there's probably a limit to how much surface we can put under parking. And we know we have a lot of lots and locations that go underutilized that would be very easy for someone to park on.

But in order to do that, unless they're willing to walk great distances, we realized we had to have some sort of shuttle internally, and this is really out of that sort of effort. Pittsburgh State University speaking of parking is adding approximately 60 spaces on the north side of campus. Will this have any effect on the shuttle service? And also if you could just talk about those new spaces in the process and how those became about. Well, I mean, certainly any spaces that we can add, I suppose, lessons the need for perhaps a person to take the shuttle if they're able to get a spot, particularly in those locations that are very close to the heart of campus. But in reality, hopefully the need for the shuttle exists beyond that addition. Those spaces came about when we were able to acquire property. And part of our facilities master planning, we have targeted those areas just to the north of the heart of campus as primaries for additional development of parking or even perhaps some additional student housing at some point in the future. So in the intervening years as landlords or property owners approach us, we're interested in looking at those opportunities.

And is there any other future plans for the shuttle or parking or anything else? Always continue to be strategic about adding parking where we can, particularly in that location, again, just north of the main campus area, north of William Street. Particularly if it's adjacent to property we already own so that we can add to the size of any contiguous lots. The future of the shuttle is hopefully students and faculty and staff will continue to use it increasingly. It will be interesting to see how things go as the weather changes and maybe gets colder if that spurs more ridership. Certainly if the demand is there we have opportunity, I think, through our partnership with C-CAP to add an additional bus and driver in the future and to try to dedicate more funding if it seems like it's cost effective to do so. What would you say to anyone that might be tentative on using the shuttle service? We would encourage everyone to consider using the shuttle, give it a try.

I think you'll be surprised at how quick and efficient you can move from one part of the campus to the other and we do get it behind it as a campus community. I do think we have the opportunity to see it enhance and grow into something that could be even more beneficial. And finally what other issues or projects do you currently have going on? At the start of school there's a lot of exciting things happening with students returning and adjusting to campus life. We've opened two new facilities or two new projects and celebrated those recently with the Overman Student Center and the completion of the Residence Hall renovation. Something that may not be on a lot of folks radar yet but will open up later in September as a renovation of the pool and the weed. Not only for individuals who have used that pool over the years and have enjoyed it but perhaps a new market of folks who would be attracted to it. It's really going to be a nice facility. Not only did a lot of things happen behind the scenes, it'll make it function more effectively and be more appealing to swim in but the general surrounding of the facility that it's in got a major upgrade so it's much more attractive. So we hope to not only attract a lot of recreational swimmers from the campus community but also be able to hold regional swim meets and other activities in there.

Our guest today has been Vice President for Student Life at Pittsburgh State University, Dr. Steve Irwin. For KRPS and Crimson and Gold Connection, this is Trent Johnson. Join us for Crimson and Gold Connection, Wednesdays at 8.50 and Fridays at 350.