Students express transportation issues

Via Transport, a service that SE Campus has been offering from February 2020, has received mixed reactions from the student population.

Some claim that it has been anything but pleasant. Others just see it as a blessing.

SE student Sev Lohse said he has expressed frustration with the system.

Lohse started attending SE in fall 2021 and has been using Via ever since he started. He explained his experience with it from the beginning and compared it to what it is now.

“The wait times have definitely become a lot longer. It used to be about 10 or 15 minutes. Now you’re looking at upwards of an hour,” he said. “So you have to schedule super in advance.”

Lohse expressed his discomfort with the wait and scheduling times with having early classes. He believes TCC and Via were not prepared for more people to use the service.

“It’s one of the worst things that’s happened,” he said. “More people have heard about it so more people are using it, but they haven’t adjusted to the change at all.”

Lohse also expressed discomfort toward the way drivers pick up riders.

“Sometimes it’s dangerous. The stops it picks seem completely random,” he said. “I was in the car when someone was getting picked up. She was stuck next to a transmission tower. There was a drop-off into the dirt and she was standing there. So the car had to go off road in the steep decline just to get to her.”

In response, the city of Arlington’s media inquiry communication coordinator Susan Schrock explained how the wait times were averaged.

“On average it takes 12-15 minutes,” she said. “It gives a good idea of how far or close the van is. The wait times vary if the vehicle is nearby and how much demand is in the system. Especially if it’s between rush times, it’s a popular service.”

She also explained how the curb-tocurb service worked.

“If they [riders] require it, they have the ability to request a curb - to - curb service on the accessibility tab at arlingtontx. com/via,” she said. “Via is not intended to be a door-to-door service and riders should expect to be picked up a block or two from where they are.”

Schrock said that if any of the students had any comments they should feel free to reach out for any feedback.

SE student Alexander Samuel expressed similar feelings toward Via as the wait times have also caused problems for him, but he also expressed gratitude toward it.

He said the president and governor positions have been given far too much attention to the point where they’re like figureheads.

“The death of democracy here isn’t corruption. It’s the fact that we’re giving these executives too much power and we believe that they have this power,” he said. “At the end of the day, the legislative branch is supposed to have more power than the president, and then the governor.”

Broadway believes many people are going to vote independently this year but says that unless it looks like that candidate will actually win, they shouldn’t vote for that person.

“The biggest lie here in the United States in general is just the idea that you can’t waste your vote, and you definitely can,” he said.

Broadway compared elections to horse races. Anyone can pick whatever horse they

“Overall, my experience is mixed, although it’s slightly positive given the fact that it is an affordable way for me to commute from my home in north Arlington without a car,” he said. He said he doesn’t like how unreliable the service can be, especially when he is in a rush.

“With long wait times, multiple pick ups and drop-offs and limited availability during rush hour, so many seats are booked to the point where you pretty much have to try again in 30 minutes or even an hour,” he said.

On the other hand, student Essi Kamasa-Quashie, who has been using Via since fall 2021, has noted that Via has been a blessing.

“I’m OK with it because it’s my only means of transportation,” she said. “Via has been really good to me so far because I don’t have to pay anything to do my grocery shopping or pay my bills.” choose, but only two horses run on that track: Republican and Democrat.

Lohse said he believes it needs to be looked after more. With the students using it, there is a standard that the school should uphold.

“If this is what we’re going to be using as our public transportation, then it needs to be cared for in the same way public transportation is and in some ways more,” he said.

“Independent voters really want to make a difference in the world? They need to actually rally around one candidate, and they actually need to help them succeed at the local level and then up to the state level,” he said.

Coleman said he wishes the information provided in politics was more straightforward so that students and those with not as much time to read articles could still participate.

“We have a system where it highlights freedom and you should want to learn about your system that is different than any other place in the world, but I just get overwhelmed and honestly quite pissed off at how everything is run,” he said. “Just give it to me straight. What’s going on? And I’ll decide which one I like worst.”

Fitzgerald thinks that the pardon won’t make too much of an impact on America’s votes due to potentially more pressing topics. Such as abortion, gun control and taxes.

“I don’t think this will impact the election,” she said. “There are too many other topics on which people will be deciding for whom they will cast their ballots.”

Biden said the pardon doesn’t apply to non-citizens or those who aren’t lawfully present in the U.S. at the time of their offense.

Powell feels this makes sense and, as an immigrant, thinks it’s the right thing to enforce.

“I have to support people coming into the country legally, doing things legally, ‘’ he said. “If you want to be a part of that system, you have to get with what that system is doing.”

Immigration

(continued from page 1)

He acknowledged the impact xenophobic rhetoric has had.

“[The news] always manipulates the way they want [their message] to be. So they will be saying XYZ about these people being bad, but in reality it’s only 1% of them that are bad,” Hantouli said. “Whenever I see it on the news, I feel bad because why are you feeding us lies?”

Hantouli noted the difficulties he has observed through his experiences and his friends.

“There are some times where they would apply for a job and they would reject them and we would know why, because they would only hire a certain ethnicity. It limits opportunities for us to get hired and work,” Hantouli said. “Same thing for schools. Going into high end schools, they only take a certain ethnicity. You can’t just reject me because I am Arab.”

Salas discusses politics with his classes in relation to topics being taught. Many of his students are first generation or immigrants themselves. He believes in his students’ ability to impact the world.

I think immigrants should be treated with respect, and I don’t think they should be treated like aliens.

“Many of my students are young voters or first-time voters, and I hope that these elections demonstrate the importance and impact of the youth vote,” Salas said. “When young people understand the issues, organize and vote in block, they can exact the change they hope to see.”

Gireesh said she hopes for people to share more compassion with one another in regards to immigrant relations and xenophobia.

“What if somebody said that to my parents? I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t have the life I have. I think people lose the idea that they are people too,” Gireesh said.