On-campus residents can only dream of infinite access to a personal washing machine and steady water pressure sans flip-flops. The minor inconveniences of on-campus dorming make the commuter student’s lifestyle seem enviable to on-campus residents. While all Pace students are fighting the same war, the differences between the commuters and residents lie in the battles being waged by each. The Commuter Advisory Board (CAB) works to better improve commuter students’ life on campus.
“We were founded in 2011 by our former President Bhagi Kannani,” said sophomore information systems major, business and security minor and current President of CAB Joe Jacobs. “As of now we are rebuilding our small organization of eleven members to keep consistent contact with the Student Government Association and commuters.”
CAB was instituted when Kannani realized that commuting should not have to affect her level, or anyone else’s level, of on-campus involvement. Initially Commuter and Resident Students (CARS) was for both on and off campus students. Jacobs and Secretary Donte Kirby have been in the process of recreating the vision and mission statement in hopes of enhancing on-campus activity for non-residents.
“The goal of Board (CAB) is to improve commuter-resident relations, increase commuter involvement and to promote commuter friendly programming,” said sophomore business management major and senator of CAB Sarah Santhouse. “We send a CAB blast once a week to all commuters to better assist them.”
“CAB Blasts” are mass emails that have been programmed to reach all commuters. They provide details on day-time events, places where flex dollars are accepted and general information on CAB as an organization. Organizations typically schedule weekly meetings and events at 9pm. Theoretically this time works for everybody because no one is tied to the responsibility of attending class. For many commuters, night-time meetings are ever so problematic.
“I live in Mahopac so if my class ends at 3, I won’t want to hang around campus for six hours,” said sophomore communications major Samantha Apicella. “Technically I could go home and come back but that’s time consuming and costly on gas.”
Frequent commutes will surely devour a gas tank and the pool table and piano in the commuter lounge will only provide so much entertainment before students begin to question their sanity. Likewise, impending snow storms and class cancellations have similar abilities in sending otherwise composed student into a fit of fury. Commuters have the misfortune of having to put up with the consequences of often poor management of class cancellations due to inclement weather.
“We’ve been working closely with Dean Lisa to make sure that the commuters’ situations are accounted for when class cancellations are considered due to severe weather,” said Santhouse. “It’s important to recognize that different areas of Westchester County have various weather conditions, which puts commuters at risk even though Pleasantville may be in the clear.”
The organization is pushing to have commuter student representatives sit in on weather related phone calls as further measures to make sure that their voice is heard in making such decisions. In April CAB will be holding their Spring Commuter Day in which they will provide pizza, music and bracelets as a means of recognizing Pace’s commuter population. They meet on Mondays during common hour in the blue room of the library and encourage all to come.
CAB can be found on both Twitter (@CABPace) and Facebook (C.A.B at Pace University).
For all of those “snow days” when classes probably should have been conducted but ended up being cancelled, Pace’s administration was likely putting the safety of its commuters first. And for that, there is CAB to thank.