Gas prices squeeze Fresno State commuters; ASI offers help
FRESNO, Calif. – Fresno State is, by nearly every measure, a commuter campus. Only about 1,000 students live in on-campus housing. Total enrollment is near 25,000. More than 95% commute from the Central Valley rather than live on campus.
According to data compiled through the university’s housing figures. Roughly 58% of students come from Fresno County alone, and nearly 83% come from the broader six county Valley region, according to university enrollment figures reported this fall.
For commuter students like Claire Simons, that daily drive has gotten a lot more expensive this semester.
“Last year I was paying a lot less. It was like 59 to 60 dollars, now it’s upwards of like 70 dollars,” Simons said.
Gas prices have climbed across California since the war in Iran began in late February, disrupting global oil supply and pushing prices higher nationwide. For a campus where the overwhelming majority of students are driving in many from well outside Fresno city limits the spike has landed directly on students wallets.
The financial strain has had ripple effects beyond the pump. Simons said the added cost of driving to campus has forced her to skip events she otherwise would have attended.
“I would have attended the Wellness Seminar with the plant making, but I didn’t because of how much it would have been to come over here,” she said.
A new program aims to help
Associated Students, Incorporated and the Center for Essential Needs are hoping to ease some of that burden with a new initiative called Bulldogs on the Go. The program will provide up to 200 commuter students with a digital gas gift card, funded through a combined $10,000 contribution $5,000 from ASI and $5,000 from the Center for Essential Needs, which draws part of its funding from California’s Basic Needs Initiative and Instructional Related student fees.
ASI President Alya Hassan said the idea came directly from conversations with students.
“We talked to clubs, we talked to students in classrooms, we wanted to meet them where they’re at, and affordability kept coming up, gas is expensive,” Hassan said.
Eligibility is based on financial need, not first-come, first-served. According to the Center for Essential Needs, the program weighs factors including a student’s remaining room in their financial aid cost of attendance, commute distance, whether they’re in a required internship.
ASI Vice President of Finance Sarai Hernandez explained how students apply.
“The Center for Essential Needs will also be doing a QR code, and then students will be filling that out and putting their information, and they will be working with financial aid, so it will be on a need basis,” Hernandez said.
When it launches
Students won’t have to wait long to find out if they qualify. Hassan confirmed the program went live October 5th, with ASI posting the QR code and application details to its Instagram account that day.
For students like Simons, who has already had to weigh gas money against campus opportunities this semester, the support is a welcome, if partial, relief.