Carpool forum aims to help students save

by Beka Rutledge, entertainment editor

 

Gas prices continually climbed during the summer, making travel of any kind difficult financially.

Many South Plains College students drive at least two days a week back and forth from Lubbock.

Realizing the monetary struggles for these students, a new feature has been added to MySPC. It is a forum where students who commute to school can leave posts to get together with other SPC students to try to get a carpool together.

To access the forum, a student has to log into MySPC, go to the tab marked “my student life”, and then click on carpool. There are a few different groups within which the student can post a message. These include Lubbock to Levelland, Brownfield to Levelland, and Littlefield to Levelland, among others.

Once in the correct group, the student can leave a message telling others that he or she would like to carpool with others, or that others can ride with them. As others read the messages, they can respond to them and leave additional contact information.

Students can then contact each other outside or inside the forum to form a travel plan. Dean Cathy Mitchell says the idea has been well received, and there has been a lot of interest.

“We know they are SPC students because they have to log into MySPC to access the forum, and we watch over it,” she said. She added that so far there have been no problems with improprieties inside the forum.

Cole Watts, one of the students who has put the forum to use, said it’s really easy to use.

“I just threw out a thread and got back five responses,” he said.

He also said that he believes it’s a great idea because it saves money for everyone and it is good for the environment.

Students who travel back and forth 30 or more miles to attend SPC are encouraged to check out the carpool forum on MySPC.