On Wednesday, September 18, YDSA Northeastern launched its “Free the T” campaign, a project aimed toward getting Northeastern University to subsidize 100% of student MBTA fares.
Over 50 students showed up to support the launch by discussing campaign strategies, making promotional materials, and researching campaign statistics (activities promoted on the group’s Instagram). According to YDSA Chair John Cervantes, the group hopes to have Northeastern’s Student Government Association (SGA) reach a resolution by November.
The group is basing its demands off a previous referendum from Sustainable Transportation @ Northeastern (STAN) that passed last semester with 93% student body approval. “We hope that a second referendum further reinforces students’ demands and enthusiasm,” said Cervantes, adding that YDSA’s inclusion of Northeastern faculty and staff in its campaign may garner even more support.
Currently, Northeastern participates in the MBTA semester pass program. Students can buy a Semester LinkPass through the school for “unlimited travel on subway and local bus” at an 11% fare subsidy.
Most colleges and universities in the Boston Metropolitan Area take part in this program, and some—like MIT and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health—offer bigger discounts.
For Northeastern students, this 11% discount means they pay $320 per semester instead of $360. For MIT and Harvard Public Health students, the 50% discount they receive means they pay $180 per semester—a stark difference.
The university also doesn’t advertise the pass properly, said Lina Petronino, communications director for Burning Rose. According to Husky Card Services, the window to apply was from June 10 to August 9, less than two months. “The 11% discount isn’t advertised anywhere. Most students don’t even know about it—I didn’t even know about it until we started our campaign. They keep this information as hidden as possible,” she said.
Over 50% of Northeastern students commute to school or work everyday, said Cervantes, who mentioned his struggles with commuting to his first co-op. All students must complete at least one co-op during their undergraduate degree, and while some jobs cover transportation, many don’t. “It ended up being me paying out of my own pocket… to do this job that only paid $15 an hour,” Cervantes said. “That’s money that could’ve been going to my groceries.”
According to Northeastern’s Housing and Residential Life, undergraduate students are required to live in Northeastern housing during their first and second years. Until the Fall 2023 semester, the school offered guaranteed housing for all four years; however, due to the recent rise in enrollment, students who entered Fall 2023 and beyond must find off-campus housing in case their lottery number isn’t high enough.
“I’ve lived off campus since my third year at Northeastern, meaning that I’ve had to commute into school and work everyday since,” said Petronino. “I was losing roughly $660 every year just to get to school and work. That is not a small amount of money, and if the school subsidized my fare it would have greatly benefited me.”
MIT also offers their 50% discount to employees, according to Maimoonah Shafqat, a senior research support associate at the university’s economics department. Shafqat saves $100 per month, which she says is extremely beneficial to her. “Housing is scarce in Cambridge, and rents are high,” she added. “Many staff and students live further away… so they rely on public transit for their commute. The subsidized transportation saves me almost $100 every month, which is a significant amount of money to me.”
Like Cambridge, rents in Boston are high. Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that 02115 is the most expensive ZIP code per square foot in the United States. This area is home to parts of Back Bay, Mission Hill and Fenway, which are three of the neighborhoods Northeastern students frequently live in when they move off campus.
While these neighborhoods are often within walking distance to campus, Northeastern also suggests looking for apartments in places like Allston, Brookline and Jamaica Plain, where rents are similar to those in the 02115 ZIP code. Living in places that are farther from campus, such as these, means that commuting is more stressful and more expensive—two problems that “Freeing the T” could fix, according to Cervantes.
Freeing the T would also benefit Northeastern students in other ways, such as increasing the accessibility of Boston, said Gabe Besecker, vice chair of YDSA Northeastern. This would lead to more exploration of the city, “extending the student body’s investment into local communities and businesses.”
Tobias Roberts, a third year civil engineering student and longstanding YDSA member, agrees with Besecker. “The core of the Northeastern experience is an experiential one,” he said. “Allowing the T to be free [will allow] us the comfort of knowing that co-ops within the MBTA network will be increasingly accessible to us, and it [will allow us] to appreciate that Northeastern Administrations wants to improve the experience of their student body.”
Petronino, who is graduating this spring, said that this is the second time YDSA Northeastern is attempting this campaign. “When I first joined the club [in 2020], we had two campaigns running at the same time,” she said. “Neither succeeded because we were split between priorities, but I’d always felt that a ‘Free the T’ campaign could’ve taken off if it were the group’s sole focus.”
This semester, Freeing the T is the group’s sole focus. “So far, we’ve worked with some members of STAN to understand how we could use their previous experience with a similar campaign to bolster our own,” said Besecker. “Our strategy is to get as much attention to our campaign as possible through Instagram posts and story reposts, [as well as] tabling, flyering, and holding rallies.”
Once the SGA referendum passes, there is another challenge to the campaign: whether or not Northeastern will implement it. YDSA Northeastern, however, is hopeful that it will.
“The more people that know about [it], the more pressure we can put on the university to follow through with the demands of the student body,” said Besecker, who also believes it would be beneficial for Northeastern to invest in the MBTA to support the program, which could in turn “provide a better ‘T’ for not only Northeastern but also the rest of Boston.”
Roberts, who is a member of STAN, says that schools like Harvard, MIT, and Tufts—who offer their faculty fully funded T-rides and their students heavily reduced T-rides—are committed to sustainability, which is what he wants for Northeastern. “I believe the Northeastern Global Community wants to forge a better world,” he added. “Allowing the T to be free is a massive step towards that reality.”
While Cervantes recognizes that going from an 11% fare subsidy to “Freeing the T” will be a long process, he also knows that the group is dedicated to the campaign.
“Of course we don’t expect Northeastern to just immediately get our demands,” he said when asked about whether or not he thought a resolution would be implemented. “I hope we can have a good conversation with administrators and the MBTA to arrive at a good consensus for all stakeholders, but especially for our students, faculty and staff, who deserve free transportation to keep our university and surrounding communities thriving and ahead of other institutions.”
The launch of the "Free the T" campaign by YDSA Northeastern signifies a crucial step toward addressing the financial burdens of commuting for students. With a strong foundation of student support and past referendum success, the campaign aims to elevate awareness and pressure on Northeastern to adopt a more equitable transportation plan for its students. By advocating for a 100% subsidy of MBTA fares, YDSA Northeastern not only seeks to enhance student accessibility, but also to foster a deeper connection between the university community and the city of Boston. The commitment to this singular focus demonstrates the group's determination to enact real change, despite the challenges ahead.
