CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly described the Robertson Scholars Leadership Program as a scholarship that allows students to spend two years at Duke University after their sophomore year at UNC. Rather, this is a program where students are afforded resources at both universities and spend the second semester of their sophomore year at the opposite campus.
This year, students — and particularly Robertson Scholars — will have a different way of commuting to and from Duke University’s campus.
Previously, this transportation route was offered through GoTriangle’s bus transportation services, but it will now be offered through Carolina Livery Transportation and known as the Robertson Express. Carolina Livery is a charter bus shuttle service offering a variety of different transportation services in the area.
“Carolina Livery is a local charter transportation company, so we do a lot of ground transportation. Notably, at UNC, we also run the disability shuttle for all of the football and basketball home games,” Jennifer McMorrow, director of Carolina Livery, said.
McMorrow said the 22-passenger shuttle will run every hour. After Monday Aug. 26, the shuttle will run every half hour seven days a week from the Morehead Planetarium parking lot at UNC and Chapel Drive at Duke.
“The Robertson Express specifically is a new service for us, and it’s going to be running on the same schedule as it historically has been, but we’ve made some efforts to reduce the carbon footprint," McMorrow said. "And also to right-size the vehicles to make sure we’re not driving a huge transit bus for four or five people at a time.”
The Robertson Scholars Leadership Program (RSLP) decided to reach out to Carolina Livery for transportation between the two campuses following the announcement that GoTriangle would no longer service that particular route, Allen Chan, executive director of the program, said.
Some of the most frequent users of the GoTriangle service were scholars within RSLP. This is a scholarship program that allows students to take select classes on Duke’s campus before ultimately spending two years on Duke’s campus after the second semester of their sophomore year.
“The premise was always from the very beginning that half of the cohort would be officially Duke students and the other half would be officially UNC-Chapel Hill students,” Chan said. “That being said, when they matriculate to one or the other universities, they actually have full rights and privileges at the sister campus, as well.”
