Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 70.12
Liaison Maria Dahmus
Submission Date March 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of St. Thomas
OP-16: Commute Modal Split

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.61 / 5.00 Amir Nadav
Assistant Director of Campus Sustainability
Office of Sustainability Initiatives
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total full-time equivalent student enrollment:
8,580

Full-time equivalent of employees:
1,499

Part 1. Student commute modal split

Has the institution gathered data about student commuting behavior?:
Yes

Total percentage of students that use more sustainable commuting options as their primary mode of transportation:
77.41

A brief description of the method(s) used to gather data about student commuting:
We gathered data about student commuting from responses to a campus sustainability survey that was administered in October 2020 to the entire university community. All 9,793 students, including undergraduate and graduate, received the survey. 16.09% (n=1,576) of the recipients responded to the question about their primary mode of transportation to and from campus.

The male/female split of student respondents to the campus sustainability survey was 37.8%/62.2% while the population is roughly evenly split (50.2%/49.7%). Relative to the student population, graduate students were underrepresented by 9.2% among survey respondents and white respondents were overrepresented by +7%. First-year students were overrepresented by 7.7%.

Part 2. Employee commute modal split

Has the institution gathered data about employee commuting behavior?:
Yes

Total percentage of employees that use more sustainable commuting options as their primary mode of transportation:
42.33

A brief description of the method(s) used to gather data about employee commuting:
We gathered data about employee commuting from responses to a campus sustainability survey that was administered in October 2020 to the entire university community. All 1,901 employees, including faculty and staff, received the survey. 38.77% (n=737) of the recipients responded to the question about their primary mode of transportation to and from campus.

Among those who answered the campus sustainability survey, full-time staff were overrepresented by 12.9% and adjunct faculty were underrepresented by 10.1% relative to the each group's representation in the entire population of employees.

Optional Fields 

Percentage of students and employees that use the following as their primary mode of transportation:
Percentage of students (0-100) Percentage of employees (0-100)
Single-occupancy vehicle 20.69 56.31
Zero-emissions vehicle 0.13 0.68
Walk, cycle, or other non-motorized mode 43.78 11.13
Vanpool or carpool 2.03 2.71
Public transport or campus shuttle 2.73 2.85
Motorcycle, motorized scooter/bike, or moped 0.06 0.27
Distance education / telecommute 28.68 24.69

Website URL where information about student or employee commuting is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The figures above do not add up to 100% because 1.90% (n=30) of students and 1.35% (n=10) of employees selected "other" or more than one mode of transportation.

This credit provides the total full-time equivalent (FTE) student enrollment and FTE of employees for fall 2020, to match the period when the transportation survey was administered. As a result, FTE figures reported in this credit differ from those reported in the STARS preface, which is based on fall 2019.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.