B4 eZ re THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAy, MARCH 2 , 2020
“my hope is that, maybe, Wash-
ington brings more school spirit,”
Nelson said. “I want a leader who
considers that an important ele-
ment of the school.”
Jendaya Williamson, a sopho-
more psychology student, said
she has high hopes for Washing-
ton.
“He’s our first black president,
which is cool,” she said. People of
color constitute about half of the
student body at George mason.
All three of the recently ap-
pointed campus leaders — Col-
lins, Pines and Washington — are
black.
But just 8 percent of college
and university presidents are Af-
rican American, a figure that has
grown by only 3 percentage
points since 1986, data from the
American Council on Education
show.
“There are only a handful of
African Americans that have
reached this level. It’s a tight
network,” Collins said. “I believe
that a diverse workforce is the
most productive and creative. It’s
been a centerpiece of my work at
Cornell, as one of the most di-
verse engineering colleges
around.”
The incoming leaders said they
also hope to forge a sense of
camaraderie among the biggest
institutions in the regions.
“our friendship extends be-
yond these positions, and so we
will find ways to collaborate and
work together to benefit not just
our institutions, but to benefit the
region,” Washington said.
[email protected]has experience as a faculty mem-
ber. Linda Apple monson, direc-
tor of the School of music, said
she asked Washington how he felt
about the arts programs on cam-
pus and “his response engen-
dered a real support.”
Connor Nelson, a GmU stu-
dent studying government and
international politics, said he
does not think Washington’s l ead-
ership will “degrade any of the
social sciences.”very aware of what we’ve been
going through here in anthropol-
ogy with the mold situation,”
Shackel said. “Even though he’s
from engineering, I think, on the
whole, we feel like we will get
support.”
Washington’s appointment
garnered excitement outside the
world of engineering. Keith ren-
shaw, who chairs the Psychology
Department at GmU, said he was
excited to have a president whohave struggled to earn back the
community’s trust, students said.
more recently, faculty in the
Anthropology Department com-
plained of a mold infestation that
some professors said sparked
health problems. But Paul Shack-
el, who chairs the department,
said he is generally optimistic
about Pines’s selection.
“He’s been on campus for a
long time, and he knows a lot of
the issues on campus. He’s alsoralph Northam (D) recently dis-
closed plans to help public uni-
versities produce 31,000 more
degrees in computer science and
related fields during the next two
decades to help meet growing
demand as the state prepares for
Amazon.
“I do think this is an indication
of the importance of engineering
in the region,” Collins said about
the recent appointments at
George mason and U-md. “A ll
these schools are recognizing a
national trend.”
U-Va.’s Benson pointed to for-
tune 100 companies — including
Apple, General motors and mi-
crosoft — that are led by people
with engineering degrees.
“They tend to be trained as
engineers, so they’re very much
problem-oriented,” Benson said.
Pines, the newly chosen U-md.
president, said that philosophy is
reflected in his work and that of
mason’s Washington.
“We have both spent decades
training a generation of engi-
neers,” Pines said in a statement.
“We challenge them to be pas-
sionate about problem-solving
and ready to work as a team —
important traits we must bring to
our new roles.”
Pines will ascend to the top job
at U-md. after controversy beset
the campus during the past two
years. After the deaths of two
students in 2018 — f ootball player
Jordan mcNair, who suffered
heat stroke during a team work-
out, and freshman olivia Shea
Paregol, who died amid an adeno-
virus outbreak — school leadersand leadership.
“People thought of engineers
as the pocket-protector people
who couldn’t b e social,” s aid Craig
H. Benson, dean of the University
of Virginia’s engineering school.
“That’s really changed.”
more than 14 percent of presi-
dents at doctorate-granting uni-
versities, such as U-md. and
George mason, have engineering
degrees, according to the most
recent data from the American
Council on Education, a higher-
education association.
The appointments at George
mason and U-md. came weeks
after Lance Collins, the dean of
Cornell University’s engineering
school, was selected by Virginia
Te ch to serve as the inaugural vice
president and executive director
of its Innovation Campus. The
Northern Virginia graduate cam-
pus will educate students des-
tined for jobs at the new Amazon
headquarters in Arlington and at
other local tech companies, Col-
lins said.
And in January, Howard Uni-
versity announced it would use a
$10 million gift, the largest in its
roughly 150-year history, to ex-
pand a science and technology
scholars program that was start-
ed to increase the presence of
minorities in those fields.
As the number of tech jobs in
the Washington region continues
to grow, government leaders and
university officials have an-
nounced plans to train a high-
tech workforce. Virginia Gov.
unIVersItIes from B1
Engineers bring passion for solving problems to new roles
BIll O'leAry/THe WAsHINgTON POsT
Gregory Washington was named George Mason university’s new president. the former engineering
dean at the university of California at Irvine is among the engineers tapped to lead a D.C.-area campus.much as residents use it,” Allen
wrote in the proposal. “If a resi-
dent only uses $30 of the $100
monthly balance, at the start of a
new month, the cost would only
be $30 to restore the balance to
$100. for someone who did not
use any of the balance, it would
cost the District $0.”
D.C. residents who receive a
federal employment commuting
subsidy would not be eligible. The
benefit would work on metro, the
D.C. Circulator and other regional
transit lines where SmarTrip
cards are used.
Estimates of what the program
could cost are complicated, based
on several calculations that take
in a variety of factors, according
to Allen’s office. Students already
have free transit service, and not
all adults in the District regularly
use transit.
According to the latest Census
Bureau estimates, about 130,000
D.C. commuters 16 and older use
public transportation. metro pas-
senger surveys taken in 2016 and
2018 estimate that more than
370,000 bus and rail trips origi-
nate in the District each weekday.
Subtracting those already cov-
ered by the Kids ride free pro-
gram and federal workers already
receiving a commuter subsidy, Al-
len’s office believes the program
would need to pay fares for about
118,000 D.C. residents.
The bill allows the mayor to
negotiate fare payments to metro,
and Allen’s office said he expects
the cost to come in closer to his
low-end estimate than $151 mil-
lion, which takes into account if
every eligible resident used the
entire benefit — which isn’t real-
istic.
The money would come from
revenue the District has generat-
ed that has exceeded its own ser-
vice needs each quarter over the
past five years thanks to the city’s
explosive growth and rising prop-
erty values.
City revenue this past quarter
was up $79.8 million, Allen said.
Between the 2015 and 2019 fiscal
years, Allen’s office said, revenue
increased by $738 million. The
District’s financial estimates proj-
ect revenue increasing by at least
$331 million each year from fiscal
2021 to fiscal 2023, Allen said.
The city has used the extra
money to pay cash for capital
projects and for a special housing
trust fund that provides gap fi-
nancing for affordable and low-
income housing projects. That
would not change, Allen said, as
his program would use just a
portion of the extra money.
Nonprofit providers who help
lower-income residents said the
transit subsidy is badly needed.
“We think this initiative could
be a game changer for the entire
city and for people we serve in
particular,” said Nechama
masliansky, senior advocacy ad-
viser at So others might Eat.
“[metro’s] the lifeblood of the city
and the lifeblood of the [regional]
economy. Helping people get to
food and their jobs, helping peo-
ple take their kids to school, going
to job training, getting to places of
worship — it’s essential.”
[email protected]Ian duncan contributed to this report.and a city that has more efficiency
is not to build more road lanes.”
In 2018, Allen championed the
District’s 2018 decision to decrim-
inalize metro fare evasion, and he
has defended it since, saying
those who skip fares largely do so
because they cannot afford to pay.
His two-part transportation pro-
posal is targeted at b ringing equi-
ty to District wards that are tran-
sit deserts, lacking in both metro
access and incomes sufficient to
pay fares. Wards 5, 7 and 8 have
median household incomes un-
der $86,000, significantly lower
than other wards, and are also
among the furthest from the city’s
job centers, Allen’s office said.
With rising operating costs,
metro has proposed increasing
metrorail fares next year while it
tries to hold the line on bus fares.
But the transit agency is propos-
ing to cut or reduce service on
dozens of routes, and Allen said
he wants to end a cycle of declin-
ing ridership and fewer routes by
creating a dedicated $10 million
metrobus fund to improve routes,
frequency and shelters in the Dis-
trict that serve primarily low-in-
come residents.
The $100 monthly SmarTrip
credits, meanwhile, would help
stop declining ridership, he said.
Any unused money would not
accumulate, a cost-control mech-
anism to make sure money isn’t
wasted.
“The program only costs asdents is just one reason cities
seem more inclined to provide
free public transportation, said
Art Guzzetti, vice president of
public policy and mobility at the
American Public Transportation
Association.
In Columbia, S.C., officials are
offering free rides to the polls. In
Seattle, hockey tickets to a new
arena under construction could
come with a free transit ride to
limit traffic downtown, he said.
“I think the trend is that the
roadway network isn’t working,
and cities are seeing that,” Guz-
zetti said. “The solution to a city
that’s vibrant, a city that’s viableThis year, mayor muriel E.
Bowser (D) launched a $1 million
research pilot that will distribute
free and partly subsidized SmarT-
rip cards among 2,500 low-in-
come public-transit users to help
their job prospects and determine
how much free fares could affect
quality of life.
A study Bowser’s administra-
tion released last week on the
city’s nightlife industry found a
lack of affordable transportation
and parking are two of the biggest
hindrances for both late-night
service workers and businesses
that employ them.
Helping lower-income resi-City released last week.
“for those living paycheck to
paycheck, as most Americans are,
even an additional $50 per month
of income can make the differ-
ence in deciding which bills to
pay,” the study said.
olympia, Wash., also made its
system, Intercity Transit, free this
year. A Boston council woman is
pushing to make the city fare-free,
while nearby Lawrence, mass., is
paying $225,000 over two years to
waive fares on three major bus
routes. Lawrence, like the Dis-
trict, does not control its main
transit system, which is why Allen
proposes $100 SmarTrip card
credits every month rather than
free boarding.
“We don’t control the ability to
go fare-free,” Allen said, noting
that metro serves maryland and
Virginia as well. “We have to be
creative in our solutions, and we
have to lead.”
The District already provides
all students between the ages of 5
and 21 free unlimited transit
rides, subsidizing a “Kids ride
free” program that paid for more
than 60,000 SmarTrip cards, dis-
tributed through D.C. schools, in
the past school year. This year, the
program will cost the District
about $22 million, with each card
running about $367 each, Allen’s
office said.year. ridership grew, but so did
vandalism and onboard distur-
bances involving youth; the city
also experienced overcrowded
buses, additional costs to run ex-
tra buses, increased vehicle main-
tenance needs and complaints
from longtime riders about an
influx of homeless people taking
up seats.
T he nearly two-decade-old
study said such programs would
work on smaller scales, and have
in college and ski towns, as well as
in transit programs that target
specific populations like com-
muters, students and the elderly.
Several big cities, including
Baltimore and Denver, have made
parts of their public transporta-
tion systems free. But shifting
priorities toward fighting climate
change, economic and racial in-
equity and traffic congestion have
several urban cities to revisit the
idea of free transit for all.
Kansas City, mo., became the
first large city to do so in January.
The Kansas City Area Transporta-
tion Authority created “Zero fare
KC,” an initiative that costs about
$9 million but is expected to gen-
erate nearly double that amount
in regional economic benefits, ac-
cording to a study the agency and
the University of missouri Kansas
trAnsIt from B1
Seven D.C. Council members to co-introduce legislation for free public transit
Alex BrANdON/AssOCIATed Press
A train at the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station. surveys find
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