No Limits to Benefits between Friends: DCCCD & DART

2012 NACAS South ConferenceMay 8, 2012

David Browning, El Centro CollegeEdward DesPlas, Dallas County Community

College District

Who The Heck?

• DCCCD = Dallas County Community College District

• DART = Dallas Area Rapid Transit

DCCCD • Service area: One County• Number of Students:

80,000• El Centro College – flagship

of DCCCD, centrally located in downtown Dallas, south Dallas and west Dallas

• El Centro student population: 12,000 (credit)

• El Centro has extremely limited parking

DART•Trains & Buses•Most of Dallas County•Part of Collin County•Soon to hit Rockwall County•Partnered with Trinity Railway Express, connecting Ft. Worth in Tarrant County

Reduce CO2eBenefits?

• Public Transit vs. Parking Lots & Traffic• Lower Carbon Footprint• Facilitating Regional Student Recruitment• Providing Students with Reliable

Transportation• Enhance applications for grants for economic

development and environmental programs

Public Transit vs. Parking & Traffic

• Costs less to provide passes than to operate parking garage

• Survey of 6 other college within the DCCCD with parking lots showed, on average, 60% of campus criminal activity occurred in their parking lots

• Public transportation allows students to continue group discussions while commuting

Lower Carbon Footprint

In 2009 with a full-time student enrollment of 7,700 ECC reduced it’s CO2e produced by student commuting by 32.6%

Facilitating Regional Student Recruitment

• Per the 2010 US Census, El Centro has access to a Dallas/Ft. Worth Metro population of 6,371,771; largest metro area in Texas and the South, 4th Largest in the US and 10th Largest in all of the Americas. Compared to an El Centro College service area population of 137,635.

Gas Price Increase Vs. El Centro Enrollment Growth

Yearly Aveage from the U.S. Energy Information Administration

Students are Consumers, too

Providing Students with Affordable Transportation

• Monthly Cost of Parking• Monthly cost of Gasoline• % of students of FA• No Gas $ = no attendance– No attendance = attrition

• No Parking $ = parking tickets– Unpaid parking tickets = jail time– Jail time = attrition

• Affordable Transportation = student success

Enhance applications for grants for economic development and environmental programs

• Silver Rating on AASHE

• Promotes environmental grant applications• Interagency collaboration increases grant

proposal scores• Attracts “green” partners – US Green Building

Council

Structure of Program• Eligible students = 6 credit hr. min. @

cert. date or continuing ed. students @ 96 clock hour min.

• Statistics since Fall 1997: 155,654 Eligible (payment to DART based

on this)89,373 Participated

• Cost $3,552,970 ($20 - $25 per semester pass)

• Effective cost is $39.75/participant

Public Transit Program vs. Parking

• Cost Comparisons:– Parking Garage construction Cost $5,000,000• 500 parking spaces

– Cost for Security and Maintenance $3,500,000• Total: $8,500,000

– Total for DART-Free: $ 3,552,970

Other Aspects of “Friendship”

• DART drive-on to college in non participating municipalities: Eastfield College - Mesquite

• DART bus access at all other colleges• Richland College - “Poetry in Motion”• DART Train Station @ North Lake College: station

artwork designed by college faculty member• DART pass good 24/7, not just school transit• Student retention – seamless, semester-to-

semester

Poetry in Motion

DART brought Poetry in Motion to North Texas in 1998. From 1999-2010, Richland College partnered with DART in support of this program. The national program is coordinated by the Poetry Society of America (PSA), and is enjoyed by millions of riders in New York, Baltimore, Boston and Chicago. Poetry in Motion gives riders a way to take a mental break from their day.

Example - Poetry in Motion

Example - Poetry in Motion

Public Art – North Lake College Station

Public Art – North Lake College Station

• Education, directed toward future growth, has as its base history - great men and women who used their education to make life better for us today through the sciences, mathematics, history, literature, philosophy and the fine arts. The North Lake College Station [paving blocks] will include the names of some of these important men and women."

- Chris Fulmer, station artist & North Lake College (DCCCD) faculty member

Summing-Up The Friendship

• It’s SUSTAINABLE: financially, environmentally and socially– Viable alternative to student parking– Public transportation partnership is good for the

environment.– Public transportation partnership is good for the

financial bottom line.– Impact of partnership surpasses environmental

and financial benefits

Questions?

The bus stops here.