Close Menu
The Baylor Lariat
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
    Trending
    • Baylor community unites in flash flood relief efforts
    • Baylor rescinds LGBTQIA+ inclusion research grant after backlash
    • Students react to emergency alert following campus lockdown
    • Baylor shelter-in-place lifted following police pursuit of robbery suspects
    • Baylor graduate charged after killing cats with pellet gun, hanging bodies over utility lines
    • Baylor Football’s Alex Foster dies at 18
    • Board of Regents confirms budget, renovations, new leadership in May meeting
    • How facilities responds to storms, flooding in campus buildings
    • About us
      • Spring 2025 Staff Page
      • Copyright Information
    • Contact
      • Contact Information
      • Letters to the Editor
      • Subscribe to The Morning Buzz
      • Department of Student Media
    • Employment
    • PDF Archives
    • RSS Feeds
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
    The Baylor LariatThe Baylor Lariat
    Subscribe to the Morning Buzz
    Tuesday, July 15
    • News
      • State and National News
        • State
        • National
      • Politics
        • 2025 Inauguration Page
        • Election Page
      • Homecoming Page
      • Baylor News
      • Waco Updates
      • Campus and Waco Crime
    • Arts & Life
      • Wedding Edition 2025
      • What to Do in Waco
      • Campus Culture
      • Indy and Belle
      • Sing 2025
      • Leisure and Travel
        • Leisure
        • Travel
          • Baylor in Ireland
      • Student Spotlight
      • Local Scene
        • Small Businesses
        • Social Media
      • Arts and Entertainment
        • Art
        • Fashion
        • Food
        • Literature
        • Music
        • Film and Television
    • Opinion
      • Editorials
      • Points of View
      • Lariat Letters
    • Sports
      • March Madness 2025
      • Football
      • Basketball
        • Men’s Basketball
        • Women’s Basketball
      • Soccer
      • Baseball
      • Softball
      • Volleyball
      • Equestrian
      • Cross Country and Track & Field
      • Acrobatics & Tumbling
      • Tennis
      • Golf
      • Pro Sports
      • Sports Takes
      • Club Sports
    • Lariat TV News
    • Multimedia
      • Video Features
      • Podcasts
        • Don’t Feed the Bears
      • Slideshows
    • Advertising
    The Baylor Lariat
    Home»News»Baylor News

    StuGov passes bill to expand public transportation for Baylor community

    Elliott NaceBy Elliott NaceApril 14, 2025Updated:April 14, 2025 Baylor News No Comments4 Mins Read
    The Baylor student senate voted on a Waco transportation bill at its meeting on Thursday making Waco public transportation more accessible to Baylor students. Maggie Meegan | Photographer
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    By Elliott Nace | Staff Writer

    Baylor student government passed a bill that opens negotiations for increased student and faculty access to Waco public transportation during its April 10 senate meeting. The ACCESS at Baylor Act, which will take effect at the start of the fall 2025 semester if approved, seeks to provide the university community with the Waco Transit System and have direct routes leading to off-campus academic buildings and other important locations throughout the city.

    ACCESS is an acronym for Accessible Community Connections for Every Student’s Success. According to Westport, Conn., sophomore Spencer Yim, senator and diversity, equity and inclusion chair, the name reflects the project’s goal of leveraging student government as a tool to help students access the Waco community through the Waco Transit System.

    “We’re finalizing details … for this initiative that will give every single Baylor student, faculty and staff member access to existing Waco Transit fixed routes, in addition to having a new [route] we [currently] call the Baylor loop,” he said. “It will encompass about a 30-minute loop of the Waco community, hitting all the hot spots that a typical student or staff member would need to hit — for example, H-E-B, the BRIC, the Piper School for Family and Child Studies and then also the School of Social Work and some other locations downtown.”

    Yim said the act will allow the entire student population to have universal access to Waco public transportation.

    “Regardless of their socioeconomic status, regardless of what’s going on in their life, [students] can access the Waco community and really engage with the resources that it has to offer,” he said.

    Yim and Plainview junior senator Mason Gregory proposed the bill, which passed unanimously last Thursday. According to Yim, the passing of the bill approved negotiations of contracts, pending the approval of the university and the Waco City Council, that will initially set aside $32,000 from the Student Government Allocation Fund to create a two-year pilot program for the ACCESS at Baylor Act. Once program specifics materialize at the end of the academic year, the student senate will hold a special session featuring newly sworn-in senators to allocate an additional $30,000 for the second year of the project.

    “The hope is to roll it out in the fall of 2025 and begin to evaluate the student response,” Tim said.

    Gregory said the incentive behind the bill stemmed from his correspondence with the Center for Global Engagement, which indicated to him international students at the university often do not have access to transportation on a regular basis.

    “It does cost about $400 per year to have a bus pass with the Waco Transit System,” he said. “Just international students alone make up about 950 students, so we already knew that there is going to be a need for at least 5% of the student population needing reliable transportation.”

    According to Gregory, further data from the Office of Institutional Research revealed that 24% of Baylor students do not have a car registered with the university, which further affirmed the need for universal student access to transportation.

    “After evaluating that and then the socioeconomic status of the university, we identified that some barriers to accessing the Waco community or grocery stores could be either socioeconomic or just not having any vehicle whatsoever,” Gregory said. “That was the heart of the project — eliminating those barriers.”

    Yim said the student government’s collaborations with the full range of the university’s departments aims to serve students on a daily basis, which makes the implementation of new bills and acts essential to their success.

    “We’re meeting this week with our student government adviser to formulate that plan — how we’re going to roll it out and in what manner — who’s going to be involved and creating a visuals package as well,” he said.

    Gregory added the act will be transformative to students who need greater access to Waco at large.

    “It opens up free access to Waco Transit for all students, expanding essential transportation for food access, medical and dental care and for many, simply getting to class,” he said.

    This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

    bill funding Public Transportation Student Government Student Government Allocation Fund Waco Transit System
    Elliott Nace
    • Instagram

    Elliott Nace is a sophomore University Scholars major with a secondary Major in Classics from Tyler, Texas. He loves studying languages and talking about popular music. Following graduation, he plans to pursue graduate work in the field of languages and literature.

    Keep Reading

    Baylor community unites in flash flood relief efforts

    Baylor rescinds LGBTQIA+ inclusion research grant after backlash

    Students react to emergency alert following campus lockdown

    Baylor shelter-in-place lifted following police pursuit of robbery suspects

    Baylor graduate charged after killing cats with pellet gun, hanging bodies over utility lines

    Baylor Football’s Alex Foster dies at 18

    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Recent Posts
    • Baylor community unites in flash flood relief efforts July 9, 2025
    • Baylor rescinds LGBTQIA+ inclusion research grant after backlash July 9, 2025
    About

    The award-winning student newspaper of Baylor University since 1900.

    Articles, photos, and other works by staff of The Baylor Lariat are Copyright © Baylor® University. All rights reserved.

    Subscribe to the Morning Buzz

    Get the latest Lariat News by just Clicking Subscribe!

    Follow the Live Coverage
    Tweets by @bulariat

    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
    • Featured
    • News
    • Sports
    • Opinion
    • Arts and Life
    © 2025 ThemeSphere. Designed by ThemeSphere.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.