Chair Joseph on OmniCard pilot for student transportation

Omni cards.

I know the committee has reported, heard from Student Senate regarding the barrier of cost of transportation creating, causing many students to miss class, lose out on internships and campus activities.

Or risk a fee for fare evasion.

The Student Senate have put forward a request for 1.4 million for free OmniCard pilot program, which will provide free transportation to over 3,000 students.

Which CUNY programs currently provide OmniCards to students and what are the limitations of the OmniCards?

You want to go?

Yep.

The programs that currently provide the free OmniCard are ASAP, ACE, CHAMPS, which is at Medgar Evers, and the SEEK program.

And I want to add, Chair Joseph, another component.

I know that the students talk about getting to class and the things that we do, the key essentials, right?

As we move to providing more opportunities for students to do paid internships and all that, they also need to have the transportation cost to be able to get, right?

If we want to be exposing them to a lot more experiential things, they also need to be able to get there.

So I also want to, and this is one of the reasons why we supported the idea of the pilot, that

The obvious thing that we all think about is getting to class, right?

Basic, important.

But in addition to that, if we want them to be out there taking advantage of paid internships and apprenticeships, the cost of transportation can be a barrier.

Okay, thank you for that.

The proposal includes students who are in foster care system.

Does the existing programs for foster care youth include transportation costs?

Let me check.

I can get a breakdown of the funding received.

I know they receive a stipend, and I'm not sure if it's specifically allocated.

They do not receive an actual OmniCard, but in some programs, for example, in SEEK, we give a transportation stipend for that utilization, and I can look to see if the stipend is for transportation costs specifically.

Thank you.