While it is preposterous for UNC to pay for students to go see their friends at Duke via the Robertson Scholars bus, it isn’t too much to ask for UNC students taking classes there to be eligible for GoPasses.
As the rules currently state, only UNC students and faculty members who live outside Chapel Hill and commute to campus are eligible for GoPasses.
UNC and Duke continually tout the close academic relationship between the schools.
Yet by not allowing students who are taking classes at Duke to be eligible for GoPasses, UNC is seemingly making Duke inaccessible to students and preventing the collaboration effort between the two schools to grow.
For instance, it could cost up to $15 a week for a philosophy, politics and economics minor to travel to Duke for class three times a week. This means over the course of a 15-week semester, it could cost a student upward of $225 to just get to class.
As a result, many students will decide not to take classes at Duke because of the significant cost.
UNC students who are taking classes at Duke should therefore have the opportunity to present documentation of their enrollment at Duke to be eligible for a GoPass.
This would save the University money because it would not have to foot the bill for students who use the Robertson Scholars bus for social needs, but it wouldn’t dissuade others who want to expand their horizons educationally.
UNC and Duke are geographically close, which makes the academic collaboration possible. It would be a shame if the cost of a bus ride instead of a sports rivalry prevented this collaboration from reaching its full potential.
