Barometer The Daily
TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012 • OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY CORVALLIS, OREGON 97331
DAILYBAROMETER.COM
VOLUME CXV, NUMBER 56
PAGE 12
SPORTS
12 – Looking back at winter break 12 – Looking at winter term
NEWS
3 – Romney leads polls in NH 7 – Record snowfall buries Alaska
FORUM
BASKETBALL: Beavers off to a 1-3 start in Pac-12 play.
4 – Looking at no child left behind 10 years later
Corvallis enjoys the free ride
Cascadia’s new location brings healthy options, good prices n
As Cascadia settles into new location, design, students can buy produce at lower price By Gwen Shaw The Daily B arometer
Alexandra taylor | THE DAILY BAROMETER
After getting rid of fares for all of its customers last year, the Corvallis Transit System has seen its ridership go up in numbers. The initiative, meant to promote sustainability, encourages students to utilize public transportation. n
Though public transit is now free, students are hesitant due to infrequency of routes By Kristin Pugmire The Daily B arometer
On Feb. 1 of last year, the Corvallis Transit System officially eliminated fares for its customers, making all Corvallis buses free to ride. According to Tim Bates, transit coordinator for the CTS, the price of the bus fares is now covered by several sources: state grants, federal grants, the state’s Business Energy Tax Credit, a direct contribution from Oregon State University and the transit operations fee. The operations fee is added to Corvallis utility customers’ monthly
City Services bill, while the fee amount depends on the type of dwelling, as the fee for a residential unit is between $2 and $3, and fees for commercial and industrial customers are decided based upon the type of business. The decision to eliminate bus fares in Corvallis was part of a series of sustainability initiatives put forth by the city. This particular initiative was designed to get more Corvallis residents, including students, out of their cars and onto the bus. But is it working? The answer is yes, according to Bates. “We have seen ridership increase nearly 40 percent since we went fareless,” he said. Before fares were eliminated, a ridership count showed that nearly 42 percent of bus riders were Oregon State students. Now that CTS is fareless, it is not possible to determine which riders are students, but the over-
all increase in ridership makes it safe to assume that students now make up at least half of all riders. The OSU community is also trying to do its part in encouraging students to take alternative forms of transportation, according to Brandon Trelstad, OSU sustainability coordinator. “It’s a necessary component of our transit strategies here,” Trelstad said, when asked why OSU chose to make a direct donation to the CTS. “We’re trying to get people out of their cars as well…the environmental impact of driving and parking also costs us to maintain. We don’t want to invest lots of space on campus in parking lots.” Many Corvallis residents, too, are looking for a solution to growing traffic and parking problems in the areas surrounding the OSU campus. At a community town hall meeting on Nov. 16
of last year, several residents expressed concerns, stating their belief that public transportation could be a way to help alleviate the problem. But if the city has made an effort to make public transportation accessible to all, why is heavy traffic and lack of parking space a growing problem? Though bus ridership is increasing, so is the OSU student population, and many students continue to drive their cars to and from campus. The reason for this, according to students, is lack of convenience. Most bus routes run only once per hour, according to Bates. In areas with heavier ridership, buses run every half hour. According to a Corvallis resident who spoke at the November town hall meetSee Transit | page 3
What did you do for the holidays?
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business management
Ryan Kilda, sophomore zoology
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I went back to Dubai. It was an 18-hour flight. My family’s there, it was good to be with the family on Christmas. Muhammed Alnuami, sophomore civil engineering
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Chantel Benjamin,junior
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I stayed in Corvallis and worked at Media Services... And I got $350 worth of traffic tickets.
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I worked at Express, my aunt died of breast cancer and my friend got thyroid cancer. The power at my house also went off for Christmas.
I went to see relatives in Santa Ana in Southern California. I met my aunt and we went to San Diego for a day. Roy Luo, Ph.D. student oceanography
Whether living on campus and using the dining centers or in an off-campus apartment making food for themselves, it is assumed college students don’t know the first thing about cooking. Sheila Ulfers, part of the team at Cascadia Market on campus, experienced the issue first hand. “While I was in college, I did not know how to cook. So when I graduated, it was like ‘OK, what kind of foods do I want to cook?’ To me it was obvious: the healthy alternative. I just learned how to cook with healthy foods. It became a part of my life.” That is exactly the idea she brought to Cascadia when she was hired last summer. Prior to working at Oregon State University, Ulfers worked at the First Alternative Food Co-op in Corvallis and was a general manager for the two stores they have. She brought all of the information she gained there to Cascadia and has helped expand it into what it is now. Last year, Cascadia was located next to Arnold Dining Center and was only about half the size it is now. “When we were going to do the remodel, I had my staff look at our history, and took the last 200 top items [that we sold], and we bought about 25 of them,” said George Coulter, food and beverge area manager at Arnold Dining. But they still didn’t know how this year was going to work with the larger store. “We didn’t have the international cliental. We didn’t have the amount of people on this side of campus. We got Sheila hired about a week before we opened.” For this coming term, Coulter said what they carry now will be based on what they’ve learned over the course of fall term. As well as all of the information that Ulters brought. “What I noticed at First Alternative is that our customer mix kept getting older. A good way to start it is at the college level. So they get a sense that there is an alternative source out there,” Ulfers said. “Learning how to cook: That’s something our culture is getting used to.” Ulfers’s main goal is to find “products that have more potential for long-term sustainability than the short-term, buy-it-now, sort of junk. I’m looking to see if I can upgrade the ingredients to sell.” Cascadia carries fair trade chocolate candies, nut blend candies, as well as wheat- and glutenfree products. Just walking into the store, there are many obvious choices that are not available most other places. “Hopefully next summer I can bring in some more local produce,” Ulfers said. Another one of the big things Cascadia offers that other places on campus don’t is produce. There is a large selection coming from See CASCADIA | page 3