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Do you know which students on your campus or in your class commute? Are you aware of how far away or close they live? Whether they travel by foot, bike, bus, or car? More importantly, are you considering how institutional and classroom policies affect them and what unique needs they may have?
To learn more about commuter life, I recently sat down with Lindsay Mason and Dilna Cama (the co-chairs of NASPA’s Off-Campus and Commuter Student Services Knowledge Community), as well as Jeremy Moore, previous co-chair of the knowledge community.
Mason reminds us that there are advantages to remaining at home. Unlike residential students — particularly first-year students who are acclimating to life away from home — commuters may go home at the end of the day to the comfort of familiar faces and home-cooked meals, she shared. Yet, there are other unique challenges and needs that come with commuting.
No matter how many commuters your campus has, it’s important for staff and faculty to understand who these students are and what they need and adjust accordingly to better serve them and nurture their sense of belonging.
Who Commuter Students Are
Commuter students’ reasons for living off-campus, commute time, and specific needs vary widely.
Your commuter population may include a mix of:
- Traditional-aged students staying home for financial reasons
- Traditional-aged students desiring to stay within their family unit (this may be a cultural decision)
- Veterans (or active-duty military members) who may have families
- Working adults
Mason shared that she’s even seen more students opting to commute because they have emotional support animals. She noted that while housing departments will certainly allow ESAs (per legal requirements), the student may choose to commute because it’s the better living environment for the animal.
Some students may have minimal travel time, while others may commute more than an hour.
Understanding these nuances and who makes up your commuter base is the first step in providing appropriate support and accounting for their needs in institutional and classroom decisions.
To gather data on this population and examine trends, consider connecting with your office of student life or commuter life (if you have one) or institutional research office. Cama shared that Ohio State faculty can filter self-reported information from students as to whether they live off-campus, live on-campus, or commute. Knowing the available data can help you consider this population when planning classes, events, etc.
Serving Commuter Students
The most recent National Postsecondary Student Aid Study revealed that only 15.6% of all undergraduate students (and only 12.9% of first-year students) live on campus.
Why, then, do so few schools have dedicated offices (or even a staff member) focused on commuter life, pondered Moore.
“We need more people doing this work at more institutions across our country to support these students,” he said.
Mason and Cama consider themselves lucky to work at institutions with dedicated offices. Yet, Moore says many schools are simply too small to have that, or the offices and staff are the first to go when budget cuts occur.
Advocating for these offices and roles on campus is a start, but in lieu of one, faculty and staff members can help ensure these students’ voices are heard.
Whether you are serving commuters in an official capacity or an advocate, it’s important to educate fellow faculty and staff about the challenges commuters may face. “There are a lot of different ways in which we can support commuters outside of having a commuter hub,” she said. “[We can help] ensure their voices are heard and encourage others to adjust perhaps the traditional way of doing things so that we do get more engagement with our commuter students.”
Cama recommends “doing a roadshow with colleagues across student affairs or across faculty within all colleges, to ensure everyone has a baseline understanding of the needs and barriers of these students.”
Here is a brief look at some of these challenges and possible adjustments that can be made on campus.
Rethinking Campus Spaces and Policies to Support Commuters
When we start thinking intentionally about involving commuter students and helping them build a sense of belonging, it becomes clear that some policies and procedures have (inadvertently) created barriers for commuter students. Consider:
- Attendance policies: Often, attendance factors into a student’s grade. Moore challenges the equitability of these policies, citing the example of a student who must share one family vehicle. If it’s a bad weather day and their parents need the car to travel to work (and the student can’t catch the bus because it’s delayed), that student is going to miss class. “We have to make sure we’re advocating for policies that are equitable for students who don’t live next to campus or down the road,” Moore said.
- Dining hall access: “If you have a student who’s packing their lunch, and they just want to be able to build community with others, but they can’t afford to constantly swipe into a dining hall, then they lose this valuable opportunity for connection,” Moore said. Institutions might consider offering microwaves in the dining hall and allowing students to swipe in without a meal plan, Cama said. However, she acknowledged this may require adjustments to existing processes, plus there could be health safety concerns to consider.
- Radius policies for commuters: For most institutions, commuter students live beyond a set radius. “We have what’s called the university district,” Cama explained about Ohio State. “It’s a defined 2.8 square mile radius area, and then anything outside of that, we consider a commuter student.” Unfortunately, Moore says he has witnessed a lot of “yo-yoing with this population.” “During the pandemic, a lot of schools were expanding this [radius] far out, or they were pulling it in further because they needed to fill their beds,” he said. Unfortunately, these abrupt changes are detrimental to both students and parents. Students who were thinking they would live off campus suddenly have to live on campus, and vice versa.
Moore, Cama, and Mason shared insight on some efforts to better support these students, including:
- Designated commuter spaces: “I hear time and time again from administrators all over the country that there shouldn’t be a dedicated space for commuter or off-campus students… because the whole campus is their space,” Moore shared. “And I would strongly disagree that that is a solution.” While there are many common spaces for students, he explains that he has seen these spaces overrun by residential students. Having a designated space ensures that commuters truly do have a space to rest, reset, sleep, or eat. Mason says these spaces must address the specific needs of commuter students, such as charging stations, fridges, microwaves, air fryers, and possibly even lockers.
- Accessibility: Mason said campuses also need to think about how to make commuting accessible. Understanding how your students travel is important in addressing this issue. At Colorado State University, where many students bike to campus, they have ample bike racks near each building. The school also partnered with the city to put a transit center on campus. “We have a ton of bus routes that start and end right in front of the student center,” Mason shared.
- “Meet them in the middle”: Why not bring the institution to the students? When Moore worked at University of Colorado Boulder, he spearheaded efforts for meet-and-greets in local communities, asking students to gather at their local coffee shops, theaters, or farmer’s markets. It can be hard for students to get to campus, so offering these community-building events in their local neighborhoods is a great way to keep them engaged with the university while being considerate of their time and energy.
- Careful consideration about events: For students with a long commute, consider pairing required or preferred events with other events or meet-ups. Commuting requires planning, energy, time, and money, Mason reminds us. She referenced research by Dr. Kristina Garcia (founding co-chair of the Off-Campus and Commuter Student Services Knowledge Community) that explains how commuters make decisions based on how much energy they must exert for what sort of return. “If you just have to walk across the street [for a campus event], it might be a minimal decision, [compared to] if you’re on a train or bus ride,” Mason said. “Campuses need to be thinking about how they make the commuting experience accessible and worth it.” Cama shares that Ohio State frequently offers a “commuter meet-up” before events so that students can begin building their networks and don’t have to attend events alone. She also encourages others organizing events to be mindful of timing. “[At Ohio State], we know our commuter students are less likely to attend anything after four o’clock,” she said.
Commuting to and from campus truly is a different experience than living there, yet we should seek to provide inclusive experiences for both populations of students. Being mindful of the challenges that commuting might pose, remaining curious about these students’ experiences, and continually seeking to improve them will serve institutions well in retaining and graduating this population of students.
