Earlham College
OP-15: Student Commute Modal Split

GENERAL: This credit only looked at the transportation of full-time undergraduates at Earlham. Mary Jones talked with Jerrod Hodge, Assistant Director of Residence Life, on 3/2/10. He was able to tell her that as of that date, 920 students were living on campus. He then gave Mary a list of the 74 full time students that have housing exemptions and live off campus with their names and school emails. This puts the total full-time undergraduate students counted in this data at 994. An email was sent to the 74 off-campus students from Provost Nelson Bingham (though authored by Jones) to survey the primary method students off campus got to Earlham. This is how it was worded: "Hello (Student Name) Earlham is currently completing an institution-wide assessment of its sustainability through the Sustainability Tracking and Rating System (or STARS) from The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). One component of this assessment is determining student commuting practices to campus. We are contacting you as a student living off campus to ask you ONE question: HOW DO YOU PRIMARILY COMMUTE TO CAMPUS? A: WALK B: BIKE (OR USE OTHER NON-MOTORIZED MEANS) C: CARPOOL D: DRIVE BY YOURSELF E: PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION To answer this question, simply hit reply and respond with what letter best represents how you get to campus the majority of the year. Thanks for helping us with this very important assessment of the college. Earlham is a charter member of the STARS assessment, which can help us see where we are as an institution regarding sustainable practices and will help inform future action on campus. Nelson Bingham Provost If you would like to find out more about the Sustainability Tracking and Rating System (STARS) or The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) you can visit: http://www.aashe.org/stars/index.php" ---- This email was sent out 4/16/10. Jones was forwarded all responses and received 31 by 4/22/10. Results- Walking: 10 Biking (or other non-motorized means): 6 Carpooling: 1 Drive by Yourself: 14 Public Transportation: 0 Jones then used applied the percentages of commuting methods of the students that responded to the larger number of students living off campus. Walking: 10/31=32.3% .323 x 74 = 23.9 (Would be 24/74 students) Biking (or other non-motorized means: 6/31=19.4% .194 x 75 = 14.3 (Would be 14/74 students) Carpooling: 1/31= 3.2% .032 x 74 = 2.4 (Would be 2/74 students) Drive by Yourself: 14/31= 45.2% .452 x 74 = 33.4 (Would be 33/74 students) Public Transportation: 0/31=0% (Would be 0/74 students) Mary Jones has copies of all this data saved on her computer, including every email response from off campus students that were surveyed. This data was also given to Professor Jay Roberts. CALCULATIONS FOR CREDITS 1.) The percentage (0-100) of institution’s students who walk, bicycle, or use other non-motorized means as their primary method of transportation. Please note that this may include on-campus residents. 920 (students living on campus)+24(walk from off campus)+14(bike from off campus)=958 958/994=96.38% 2.) The percentage (0-100) of institution’s students who van or carpool as their primary method of transportation 2 (carpool from off campus) /994= 0.20% 3.) The percentage (0-100) of institution’s students who take a campus shuttle or public transportation as their primary method of transportation 0: No students living off campus surveyed that shuttle or public transportation as their primary method of getting to campus. 4.) The percentage (0-100) of institution’s students who drive alone as their primary method of transportation 33 (surveyed drive alone)/994= 3.32%