In previous years, living at Mazza GrandMarc apartments came with dependable shuttles that brought students to campus with wait times usually 30 minutes at most. It was a predictable link between home and campus.
Transportation to and from the off-campus complex now looks different.
Just after the first day of classes, Howard University discontinued its weekday shuttle service to Mazza. Students now rely on private buses contracted through the apartment.
During this transition students say they are left to face long waits, late arrivals and costly rideshares.
“A lot of people haven’t been able to figure out exactly when the shuttle is coming so they are standing outside for an hour, hour and a half,” Alexis French, a senior political science major, criminology minor from Georgia said.
Students say the new service is difficult to plan around, particularly when the stakes are getting to class, work or meetings on time.
While Mazza shuttles are equipped with an app called BusWhere to track arrivals, French and other students say it is often inaccurate.
Beyond the issue of unreliable timing, students say there aren’t enough buses to meet demand.
Howard’s former system ran several shuttles on a set schedule every half hour, but Mazza’s contract provided three buses to cover the entire day according to students. The Hilltop reached out to the Office of Residence Life and University Housing for confirmation but did not receive one in time for publication. As a result, when a shuttle finally arrives, crowds of students often pack in quickly, leaving others to wait for the next one.
For Robert Hill, senior honors broadcast journalism major from Kansas City, Missouri, getting on the Mazza shuttle is no longer as simple as it used to be.
“Now everybody is trying to hurry up and run to get a seat, so people are pushing and practically trampling over each other,” Hill said.
Mazza is located nearly 10 miles from campus, leaving students vulnerable when issues like this arise. Many students turn to platforms such as Uber, Lyft and Empower to get to class on time. Hill added that he was grateful that he had graceful professors that understood his lateness due to the current Mazza shuttles.
“Me and a couple of other people at the shuttle ended up getting an Empower to split,” Rasiah Worthy, a senior journalism major sports administration minor from Detroit, Michigan said. “We needed to get something to get home.”
“We were promised,” Hill said. “Mazza is still in the housing, we thought we were going to still have a shuttle.”
In the meantime, Mazza students are circulating concerns among peers and calling for stronger solutions. Many students want the Howard-operated shuttles to be reinstated.
Until then, student residents feel their current transportation is no longer in their control. It’s a gamble every morning that costs them their time, finances and sense of security.
The Hilltop reached out to the Office of Residence Life and University Housing but they declined to comment citing legal reasons.
Copy edited by Damenica Ellis
This story is ongoing and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Editors Note: The original version of this article contained a typo saying Mazza GrandMarc was two miles away from campus. It was revised to reflect the accurate distance: 10 miles.
