Students and staff members from UMSL joined counterparts from Saint Louis University, St. Louis Community College, Southwestern Illinois College and Washington University in St. Louis Thursday morning at the Grand MetroLink Station to kick off Citizens for Modern Transit’s “College Transit Challenge.” (Photo by Derik Holtmann)
Remy Xa is a big believer in the value public transit can bring to students at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.
Serving as the student program manager of community and belonging in the Office of Student Involvement, Xa has been leading an initiative over the past year called Quest St. Louis designed to help students engage with the MetroLink and MetroBus systems and connect to other parts of the St. Louis region they otherwise might not have visit.
Remy Xa (at right), a communication major and the student program manager of community and belonging in the Office of Student Involvement, speaks about the benefits of public transit for college students during a kickoff event for the “College Transit Challenge.” (Photo by Derik Holtmann)
“We wanted to show people the food, the culture, all of the wonderful experiences that they were missing in the city,” Xa said. “We created little brochures and little guides, and we’ve been bringing students on these guided Metro field trips with the priority of being eco-sustainable, affordable and accessible to as many people as possible.”
Just last month, Xa helped lead a group of 28 students to the annual Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden by taking MetroLink and MetroBus.
That all made Xa an ideal choice to extol the virtues of Metro Transit during a kickoff event for the latest “College Transit Challenge,” held Thursday morning at the Grand MetroLink station beneath the Grand Boulevard viaduct. The senior communication major was one of several area students and staff members to provide testimonials as part of the kickoff.
“This is an opportunity to highlight the regional transit system, its impact on local communities and how public transit access is critical to local colleges and universities in the St. Louis region,” Citizens for Modern Transit Executive Director Kim Cella said while speaking to an audience of representatives from not only UMSL but also Saint Louis University, St. Louis Community College, Southwestern Illinois College and Washington University in St. Louis.
Louie the Triton takes a ride on MetroLink Thursday morning to help kick off Citizens for Modern Transit’s “College Transit Challenge.” (Photo by Valerie Furlong)
Each school was also represented by its mascot. Louie the Triton was joined by SLU’s Billiken, STLCC’s Archie the Fox, SWIC’s Kashmir the Snow Leopard and WashU’s Bear.
“Transit is about access,” said Taulby Roach, the president and CEO of Bi-State Development Agency, which operates Metro Transit. “We talk about economic mobility, and of course, what is education? Education is about economic mobility. When you get an education and you move throughout the region, what are you doing? You’re building the vibrancy of your very community. That’s really why we’re here. Transit provides that economic mobility. We’re trying to give an idea of how we can make our community sustainable and accessible for every single person, whether or not they’re at any one of these great universities. We want to move them throughout St. Louis and continue the mission of making our community vibrant.”
As part of the challenge, students as well as faculty and staff members from each institution were tasked with trying to ride either MetroLink or MetroBus as often as they could during the day-long competition and to submit information about each trip via text to challenge organizers.
This year marked the challenge’s fourth installment. UMSL won the first College Transit Challenge, held in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic put the challenge on hiatus for several years, but it has now been held each of the past three years. UMSL received second place with SLU winning the challenge for the first time.
The competition aims to inspire people to continue to take advantage of the system outside of a single 24-hour period.
“I challenge you to bring students on these excursions, demystify the process and give them the strength going in numbers, trying out the city and all it has to share,” Xa told the assembled crowd shortly before they all boarded the eastbound train for a ceremonial ride to the 8th and Pine MetroLink Station to kick off the challenge.
At UMSL, enrolled students are eligible to purchase a pass that provides unlimited MetroLink and MetroBus access for only $25 per semester as part of the Metro U-Pass Program. Metro passes are also available for faculty and staff for $65 per semester.
