College Pass Partnership Growing for 2017

CCAP college partners are again partnering with Metro Transit to increase transit ridership among their students. Metro Transit has committed to an expanded partnership by offering a significant discount on College Pass to new students.

The 2017 College Pass Initiative advances the Partnership's overall goal of increasing collective transit ridership among partner institution students and employees by 5% within five years.

Significant Discounts

"This offer from Metro Transit represents real progress in our transit commitment," noted Augsburg College President Paul Pribbenow. "We can make unlimited transit use an attractive element of campus life for our incoming students."

Incoming students at CCAP partner colleges will have the option to purchase a heavily discounted College Pass, good for unlimited rides on Metro Transit trains, buses, and the North Star line.

Fall semester college passes will be available to incoming students for $90 (an $80 discount). Academic year passes will be available for $150 (a $190 discount).

"We are very interested in promoting transit as a lifestyle choice," Metro Transit General Manager Brian Lamb explained. "We are grateful that the Central Corridor Anchor Partnership shares this commitment, and pleased to see this collaboration continue."

Participating college partners will purchase a $5 Go To card to familiarize incoming students with transit options. New students can use the $5 Go-To cards to test ride transit, and colleges can offer programming specific to encouraging transit familiarity among new students. 

Fall 2016 Transit Pass Promotion Results

Partnering with Metro Transit, CCAP scaled up its college transit pass pilot in fall 2016, adding three more schools—Bethel, St. Kate’s, and St. Thomas—to the pilot Go-To card for freshmen program pioneered by Augsburg in fall 2015.

Students received Go-To cards preloaded with $10, and were eligible to receive $10 bonuses if they loaded at least an additional $10 onto their cards. Program promotion included a social media contest asking students to submit a tweet about their transit usage on Twitter, with a gift card prize available weekly for the tweet with the greatest amount of social media engagement.

23% of all cards distributed in fall 2016 and spring 2017 were used at least once, and 20% of students who received Go-To Cards in fall 2016 loaded more money onto their cards.

President Arthur's Inauguration Praises Partnership

Partnerships were the theme as Metropolitan State University inaugurated Ginny Arthur as its seventh president last Friday.  President Arthur specifically recognized the Central Corridor Anchor Partnership (CCAP) and the reciprocal, positive relationships among institutions that such partnerships foster.  She noted the alignment of this partnership with the innovative, non-traditional institutional environment envisioned by Metropolitan State’s first president Dr. David Sweet.

“President Sweet’s observation, that Metropolitan State is not an ‘enclave within the cities’ for those who want to retreat from the urban environment and its issues, is exemplified today through partnerships that work with hospitals and major health care employers in the Central Corridor Anchor Partnership to address the region’s nursing shortages,” she said.

Sharon Pierce, President of Minneapolis Community & Technical College, took part in the inauguration and praised President Arthur’s commitment to collaboration with community colleges.  The Central Corridor College (C3) Fellows program is one highly successful initiative that benefits both MCTC and Metropolitan State students.  C3 Fellows connects college students to healthcare providers along the Green Line to gain part-time work experience in health careers. 

Metropolitan State is also serving as lead academic partner in CCAP’s  new Nursing  Initiative, designed to increase BSN nursing workforce diversity through a program offering Central Corridor RNs employer tuition support, scholarship funding, and specialized onboarding experiences.

Founded in 1971, Metropolitan State University has a deep commitment to community engagement.  A leader in four year college campus diversity, students of color and American Indian students account for nearly 50% of Metro State’s 2016-2017 class.

It’s Not About the Map – but the MISSION

Among the Central Corridor Anchors, Bethel University may appear to be geographically more distant from the Central Corridor, but we are closely connected to the Partnership’s mission of promoting regional prosperity through a more local workforce, spending more on local vendors, and promoting transit.  One clear example is our shared commitment to creating pathways to careers in healthcare. 

We recently launched Bethel’s new Center for Healthcare Excellence. Under the leadership of executive director Kristi Moline, the Center will develop pathways for Bethel University students and graduates to healthcare partners.  Our focus is to build stronger internal and external partnerships to benefit both Bethel students and the healthcare industry. 

This support for careers in healthcare has led us to explore connections to the Partnership’s highly successful C3 Fellows program. Bethel’s new Center for Healthcare Excellence and C3 Fellows share a commitment to opening doors for college students to work in the healthcare industry. We are also excited to be a part of the Partnership’s new Nursing Initiative to create strong pathways for associate degree RNs to obtain BSN nursing degrees and thereby a more diverse healthcare workforce.

We are working on stronger regional transit connections to the A Line and the Green Line, but we are also setting our sights beyond geography.  At Bethel, we believe that with faith in Christ we can accomplish incredible things in our careers, in our communities, and in our world.  And we celebrate opportunities to work with our fellow Central Corridor Anchor Institutions to pursue healthier, stronger, and better connected communities in the Central Corridor, and beyond. 

Jay Barnes, President

Bethel University