Green Action Fund (GAF) hosted their monthly meeting on Oct. 6 in the Sustainability Demonstration House, to review a proposal for Mountain Metro Transit bus passes for students and discuss legacy projects.
GAF is a student-run organization funded by student fees dedicated to funding sustainable projects that that awards research, seed, and project grants to students, faculty and staff to increase sustainability on the UCCS campus and benefit the UCCS community.
Mountain Metro bus passes
This proposal was presented to GAF because it provides students with sustainable transportation in an effort to reduce carbon emissions, campus traffic and parking congestion. The proposal is also meant to increase students’ access to higher education by providing reliable transportation.
“[Using public transportation] is easy and it’s a lifelong skill that [students] can build and utilize in the future. It also provides a peace of mind for parents who are bringing their students who might not have access to a vehicle or even don’t want to bring their vehicle to campus.” Basic Need Coordinator Amber Gilson said.
Gilson, Senator of Letters, Arts, and Sciences Sam Kopessa and Senior Director of Student Life Brad Bayer proposed GAF fund 2,000 Mountain Metro bus passes for students for a total of $40,000.
According to Gilson, 1,300 passes will be allotted for residential students, 600 passes will be allotted for commuter students and the remaining 100 passes will be reserved for emergency situations, such as car issues.
Passes will be provided at $5 per semester and discounted at $2.50 per summer semester. A pass-through Mountain Metro costs $61 per month.
UCCS had a similar program pre-COVID that provided free bus passes to all students, but the program was discontinued due to low use. According to Gilson, only 250 passes were being used, something UCCS hopes to mend in the new program by negotiating additional stops on campus to target residential students.
Gilson hopes to increase pass usage with better advertising. According to Bayer, the proposal has many UCCS partners including UCCS Advancement, Parking and Transportation Services, Student Life, Resident Life and Housing, SGA and the Office of the Dean of Students. If the proposal is funded, Mountain Metro will also assist with advertising.
“So coming to campus events and tabling, [Mountain Metro] has educational material on how to utilize the bussing system so that it makes it a lot more easy and digestible for our students to transition into using public transportation,” Gilson said.
If approved for funding, the pilot project is outlined to last for 18 months. The first round of passes will be purchased by Christmastime and offered to students in spring 2026.
The remaining project months will be used to collect data on the program’s usage, evaluating its success in summer 2027.
Legacy projects
Legacy projects are proposed by GAF members, giving them an opportunity to discuss other projects worth funding that are not presented by the UCCS community.
“The idea is to have a last program, project, or feature that is tied directly back to, or regularly operated by, GAF,” said the Chair of GAF Brett Meurer.
Members discussed bulk refill pop-ups and hosting grant workshops for the UCCS community to advertise the bulk refill and mimic the station the in bookstore.
The popups would occur around areas with heavy foot-traffic, like dorm lobbies in front of the laundry in La Plata and would be held monthly in different spots.
Members discussed hosting workshops in spring 2026 to give students, staff and faculty a chance to receive feedback about their grant proposals before officially presenting at a GAF meeting.
Other news:
- GAF inducted a new voting member, Teegan Sitler, a freshman majoring in electrical engineering.
Photo by Francesco Gallarotti on Unsplash.