Life as a Commuter Student

NSE Author

05/01/2024 Added

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Learn about how to navigate and connect on campus as a commuter through info on parking, transportation, involvement opportunities, and more.

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[00:00:00.000]Hi, everyone, my name is Emily Klesner Platt,
[00:00:01.860]and I'm an assistant director
[00:00:02.850]in the New Student Enrollment Office.
[00:00:04.920]This presentation is about being a commuter student
[00:00:07.140]here at UNL.
[00:00:08.760]We're gonna go over a lot of different things
[00:00:10.528]in this presentation.
[00:00:12.210]First off, we'll be preparing for your first day of classes
[00:00:14.670]and what all you'll need to think about and do beforehand.
[00:00:17.910]Thinking through your transportation
[00:00:19.440]and what that looks like for you,
[00:00:21.330]and then how you can make connections
[00:00:22.860]once you are here on campus.
[00:00:25.642]A few things to think about before your first day
[00:00:27.270]when you get here to start classes.
[00:00:29.280]One thing we really encourage all students to do
[00:00:31.590]is to map out their class routes.
[00:00:33.780]And what this looks like is just coming onto campus
[00:00:36.090]once you have your class schedule,
[00:00:37.860]finding all of your buildings,
[00:00:39.180]walking between them, walking from your parking lot
[00:00:41.850]or your bus stop to your buildings
[00:00:43.530]and just seeing how long it takes you
[00:00:45.060]to get to those places.
[00:00:46.080]That way you're really prepared.
[00:00:47.520]Know exactly how much time you need
[00:00:48.840]on the first few days of class.
[00:00:50.640]If this is something that you want some extra help with,
[00:00:52.590]you can come and see our orientation leaders
[00:00:54.990]during Big Red Welcome.
[00:00:56.202]There'll be leading class routes tours
[00:00:57.660]all throughout the week, and they can walk around with you
[00:00:59.730]and help you find all of your buildings.
[00:01:02.160]The second thing is we really encourage you
[00:01:03.510]to plan out your transportation and parking.
[00:01:05.970]Knowing what parking lot you're gonna be in, what bus stop,
[00:01:08.550]where your bike racks are can all be really helpful.
[00:01:10.530]And we're gonna talk about even more of that here
[00:01:12.110]in this presentation in a moment.
[00:01:14.220]And then lastly, just making a plan for your day,
[00:01:16.590]for each day that you're on campus.
[00:01:18.270]Every day might look a little bit different.
[00:01:19.920]Some days you might need to bring meals
[00:01:21.300]or certain supplies for classes,
[00:01:23.190]but just making sure that you have a plan.
[00:01:24.630]That way you know exactly what you need every day
[00:01:26.400]when you leave your house.
[00:01:28.890]One of the most really helpful resources
[00:01:30.840]for all students is our UNL maps.
[00:01:33.030]As you can see, there's a lot of information
[00:01:34.590]that you can gain off of this map.
[00:01:36.150]So we have everything from all of the campus building,
[00:01:38.760]bike racks, bus stops, parking,
[00:01:41.100]everything that you could need.
[00:01:42.510]You also see the search bar up there
[00:01:43.980]in the left-hand corner.
[00:01:45.090]And when you get your class schedule,
[00:01:46.620]a lot of the buildings are gonna be abbreviated
[00:01:48.600]on that schedule.
[00:01:49.680]And you can type that abbreviation into this search bar
[00:01:52.650]and it will immediately pop up the full name
[00:01:54.690]of that building.
[00:01:55.560]And this page is just on our webpage.
[00:01:57.210]This is just maps.unl.edu.
[00:01:59.970]Real easy to find and you can get a lot
[00:02:01.470]of information off of it.
[00:02:04.020]So when it comes to parking, like I said,
[00:02:05.280]we're gonna talk quite a bit about that.
[00:02:06.720]So here's kind of a rundown of what you might need
[00:02:08.700]to know for parking.
[00:02:10.080]So every student has two options for parking passes.
[00:02:12.750]You can get an annual pass, which is August to August
[00:02:15.630]or a nine-month pass, which is August to May.
[00:02:18.051]Really the only consideration
[00:02:19.620]to make here is do you think you're gonna need
[00:02:21.330]a parking pass over the summer?
[00:02:23.040]If you think you're gonna be on campus a lot
[00:02:24.510]taking summer courses,
[00:02:25.560]that annual pass might be most helpful.
[00:02:27.840]But if you really think you're just gonna be here
[00:02:29.310]during the fall and spring semesters,
[00:02:30.900]that nine-month one can save you a little bit of money.
[00:02:33.510]All of our permits do work on all three of our campuses,
[00:02:36.210]so you just need one permit to be able to park on City, East
[00:02:39.540]or Innovation Campus.
[00:02:41.190]And then I'm gonna go through on the next few slides here,
[00:02:43.080]these four different types of parking permits.
[00:02:46.350]So as you can see, there's four different kinds.
[00:02:48.300]We have non-reserved, which is just open surface lot parking
[00:02:52.260]for anyone who has that pass.
[00:02:54.000]We have reserved lots, which are more specialty,
[00:02:56.880]they're a lot smaller, there's a lot fewer of them,
[00:02:59.520]so they're not quite as popular,
[00:03:01.590]but they are kind of in central campus.
[00:03:03.570]We have parking garages all throughout campus.
[00:03:05.730]And then we also have perimeter parking.
[00:03:08.010]So for this non-reserved lot, like I said,
[00:03:10.470]those are open air, open parking lots
[00:03:12.930]that you can just find a spot anywhere inside of them
[00:03:14.880]and park if you have this pass.
[00:03:16.590]As you can see on the screen,
[00:03:17.700]they are all across campus, makes it really easy
[00:03:19.920]to park really close
[00:03:21.030]to your buildings wherever you may need to be.
[00:03:23.640]Like I said, these reserved lots are kind of central
[00:03:25.620]to campus, but as you can see, they are pretty small.
[00:03:27.720]So they are less popular
[00:03:28.800]just 'cause there's fewer parking spaces to sell,
[00:03:31.890]but they can still be a great option for central campus.
[00:03:35.280]We have five parking garages around campus
[00:03:37.470]that students can choose from.
[00:03:39.210]Do note that if you are choosing a parking garage,
[00:03:41.670]you're buying a pass for a single garage.
[00:03:44.460]You can't bounce around between the five garages
[00:03:46.830]like you can with the different parking lots.
[00:03:48.750]You're just gonna pick one.
[00:03:49.710]So really make sure that you know
[00:03:50.940]what your class schedule looks like
[00:03:52.230]and know what garage is gonna be the best
[00:03:54.529]and closest to as many of your buildings as possible.
[00:03:58.080]Our last option here is our perimeter lots.
[00:03:59.940]As you can see, these are just on the edge of campus.
[00:04:02.700]They're a little bit more of a walk,
[00:04:04.050]but they are about half the cost.
[00:04:05.430]So it can save you quite a bit of money if you're willing
[00:04:07.430]to just walk a little bit farther.
[00:04:09.540]I will make a note that this big intersection here,
[00:04:11.550]this Antelope Valley Parkway in Salt Creek,
[00:04:14.041]there's a big walking bridge underneath that.
[00:04:16.980]And so you can go right underneath the traffic,
[00:04:19.440]really open and safe.
[00:04:20.880]Makes it really easy to pop onto the main part
[00:04:23.010]of campus without having to cross any major busy roads.
[00:04:26.910]When it comes to East Campus, like I said,
[00:04:28.440]all of our permits work over there as well.
[00:04:30.240]It's just a matter of where you're able
[00:04:31.560]to park once you get over there.
[00:04:34.200]If you're on City Campus
[00:04:35.550]and you have a non-reserved pass, a reserved pass
[00:04:38.340]or a parking garage, all three
[00:04:40.290]of those passes turn into non-reserved passes
[00:04:43.050]over on East Campus
[00:04:44.160]so they can park in any of these green lots.
[00:04:46.440]As you can see, it's not a super big campus over there,
[00:04:49.110]so it's really easy to find parking right close
[00:04:51.360]to your buildings.
[00:04:52.830]The only exception is for perimeter parking
[00:04:54.870]that if you do have a perimeter parking for City Campus,
[00:04:57.510]that's also where you're gonna be parking on East.
[00:04:59.310]But like I said, it's a smaller campus,
[00:05:00.870]so that's still really great parking over there.
[00:05:03.930]A few other notes on parking.
[00:05:05.730]All of our parking permits, with the exception
[00:05:07.590]of parking garages, are digital permits.
[00:05:09.990]So you just go online, purchase that permit,
[00:05:12.720]and then how they do it is they scan the parking lots
[00:05:15.270]and scan the license plates.
[00:05:16.890]So it makes it really easy.
[00:05:18.120]You don't have to do anything extra
[00:05:19.440]besides park in the correct lot.
[00:05:21.390]I will note that you are able to have up
[00:05:23.280]to five cars on one permit,
[00:05:25.950]but only one car can be on campus at a time.
[00:05:28.080]So if you ever need to bring a parent
[00:05:29.970]or a sibling's car onto campus, you can just add that
[00:05:32.490]to your pass and just have one at a time on campus.
[00:05:36.180]If you do need accessible parking, you can just talk
[00:05:38.760]to the Parking and Transit Services Office
[00:05:40.620]and they can help you get the pass
[00:05:41.880]that best fits your needs.
[00:05:43.740]Motorcycles do not require a purchased permit,
[00:05:47.190]but you do still need to register a motorcycle online
[00:05:49.830]just so that the school knows it belongs to a student.
[00:05:52.860]And then lastly, we have a really great program
[00:05:54.540]called Husker Safe Walk.
[00:05:55.920]And what this is is students can access this program 24/7
[00:05:59.589]for free, completely for free with your student fees.
[00:06:03.480]And all you have to do is call their number
[00:06:05.130]and a security officer will come to your location
[00:06:08.070]and then walk you to your next location.
[00:06:10.380]So let's say maybe you're studying in the library
[00:06:12.420]and it's really late at night
[00:06:13.650]and you parked all the way up in one
[00:06:15.390]of those north perimeter purple lots
[00:06:17.400]and you just don't wanna walk there by yourself,
[00:06:19.302]you just call the number, a security officer will just walk
[00:06:22.080]to the library, link up with you
[00:06:25.380]and then walk all the way up
[00:06:26.640]to your campus lot wherever your car is parked.
[00:06:29.820]And it can be any building on campus,
[00:06:31.274]it doesn't have to be a parking lot,
[00:06:32.430]but that's free for all students
[00:06:33.960]and you can use that at any time.
[00:06:36.720]A few other additional transportation options.
[00:06:39.300]We are a very bike-friendly campus and city.
[00:06:42.510]We do encourage all students to register their bike
[00:06:44.790]with UNL PD.
[00:06:45.840]That's really just so that they can help you track
[00:06:47.940]your bike down if something would happen.
[00:06:49.650]And it helps them know that the bike belongs
[00:06:51.840]to a student when it's on campus.
[00:06:54.060]As you might have seen on the map side,
[00:06:56.310]we do have bike racks by almost every building on campus.
[00:06:58.860]It's very easy to park your bike
[00:07:00.450]wherever building you're headed into.
[00:07:02.460]Our Outdoor Adventure Center has safety checks, repairs
[00:07:05.010]and rentals available.
[00:07:06.270]And then BikeLNK, which is a local company,
[00:07:08.940]has a really great opportunity for students
[00:07:10.980]to pay a flat rate of $25 a year
[00:07:13.620]and rent their bikes by the hour is unlimitedly
[00:07:16.530]for the whole year, which is really great for them.
[00:07:19.710]For the city bus, students are able
[00:07:21.960]to get a free city bus pass through the Token Transit app
[00:07:25.770]that's covered by student fees.
[00:07:27.750]You can use the city bus pass to go on the buses that go
[00:07:30.990]between our three campuses at UNL
[00:07:33.060]or anywhere throughout the city.
[00:07:34.740]So if there's a bus stop that's close to your home
[00:07:36.870]and you wanna take the bus onto campus, you can do that
[00:07:39.720]or you can just take a route that's between any
[00:07:41.970]of our three campuses here.
[00:07:45.420]A few tips here from making UNL your home away from home.
[00:07:49.140]We really encourage all students
[00:07:50.430]to participate in student organizations.
[00:07:52.230]We have over 500 student orgs on campus.
[00:07:54.930]There's so many options for everyone.
[00:07:57.240]Really something that will fit your interests,
[00:07:59.130]fit the things that you want
[00:08:00.240]and will help you to be able to make some quick
[00:08:02.460]and easy friends that have the similar interests to you.
[00:08:05.820]We also encourage you to join study groups.
[00:08:07.710]This can be a really easy way to make quick connections
[00:08:10.230]as well as do well in your classes.
[00:08:12.570]Truly, it's just as easy as saying hi
[00:08:14.460]to the people next to you in class.
[00:08:15.960]I've had many of my students tell me that they did that
[00:08:18.300]in the first few weeks of class
[00:08:19.770]and some of those people
[00:08:20.790]are still their friends years later.
[00:08:22.560]So that can be a great way to just start to get
[00:08:24.870]to know people and then also take the time to study for some
[00:08:27.510]of your classes as well.
[00:08:29.370]We encourage you to use campus facilities
[00:08:31.500]as much as possible.
[00:08:32.850]If you're able to stay on campus between classes
[00:08:35.160]and not run home, you know, find great places
[00:08:37.830]to study, use the Campus Rec,
[00:08:39.930]be out on the green space to meet new friends.
[00:08:42.390]There's lots of opportunities here on campus,
[00:08:44.460]especially throughout the day.
[00:08:45.930]So it can be a great place to stay
[00:08:47.460]and feel a little bit more a part of campus
[00:08:49.290]if you don't have to go home right after class.
[00:08:51.840]Then lastly, we really encourage any of our students
[00:08:53.940]who need to work while they're in college
[00:08:55.470]to work right here on campus.
[00:08:57.240]Our supervisors are really great
[00:08:58.860]and can be flexible in understanding with knowing
[00:09:01.230]that you are a student.
[00:09:02.760]They know that you need to work around class schedules.
[00:09:04.890]That might be kind of weird in different times
[00:09:06.630]during the day, but they're used to that
[00:09:08.910]and they're able to really help you get a great schedule
[00:09:10.950]so you can still get a lot of hours in while getting
[00:09:13.320]through your classes and coursework.
[00:09:16.560]When it comes to eating on campus, you have a lot
[00:09:18.450]of great options as well as a commuter student.
[00:09:20.850]All of our commuter students are able
[00:09:22.230]to use our dining centers.
[00:09:23.640]You can have meal plans
[00:09:25.320]or you can also just order single meals at a time
[00:09:27.780]through our Dining app, which means great grab and go.
[00:09:30.750]We have a couple different options around campus as well
[00:09:33.030]as in the City Union and East Campus Union as well.
[00:09:36.630]And then we also have some C-Stores,
[00:09:38.310]which are little convenient stores located
[00:09:39.960]all throughout campus
[00:09:41.092]where you can have grab-and-go options as well.
[00:09:44.070]The Union and Downtown have a lot
[00:09:46.230]of really great restaurant options right close to campus.
[00:09:48.630]You can just pop just a few blocks down
[00:09:51.180]and get almost anything that you want.
[00:09:53.400]And then you also are able to, of course,
[00:09:54.660]bring your own meals to campus.
[00:09:55.980]We do have some microwaves available in the union
[00:09:58.650]and in the Adele Learning Commons for any student to use
[00:10:01.380]to warm up any food.
[00:10:03.510]If you're needing any storage on campus,
[00:10:05.040]we also have lockers available at the City library
[00:10:08.130]and Campus Rec.
[00:10:09.090]And then Campus Rec also
[00:10:10.200]has some bike locker rentals as well.
[00:10:13.800]One thing that is a little bit newer this year for all
[00:10:16.410]of our students, if you are living off campus, you will need
[00:10:19.980]to complete the on-campus housing exemption form.
[00:10:23.580]This is required for all students who are under the age
[00:10:26.220]of 19 by the first day of classes in the fall.
[00:10:29.700]So if you are 17 or 18 and will not turn 19
[00:10:32.850]before August 26th, you will need to log into your MyRED
[00:10:36.810]and complete that exemption form.
[00:10:39.480]Really easy reasons for exemption here that you can use
[00:10:43.320]to help get your exemption is living at home
[00:10:46.470]with a parent, guardian
[00:10:47.490]or close relatives that's within 30 miles of campus.
[00:10:50.670]If you are transferring 27 or more credits
[00:10:53.340]after your high school graduation,
[00:10:55.440]if you are already married
[00:10:56.520]or if you are a parent yourself as a student.
[00:11:00.450]So you can go on there.
[00:11:01.283]If you do have any other questions about that,
[00:11:02.820]you can reach out to university housing
[00:11:04.650]and they can help work through that
[00:11:06.810]to help you get the exemption that you need to be able
[00:11:08.760]to live off of campus your first year.
[00:11:12.480]Right before classes,
[00:11:13.350]we do have a really awesome opportunity
[00:11:15.330]for our commuter students.
[00:11:17.100]Big Red Welcome is our welcome week activities that we have
[00:11:20.010]for all students on campus.
[00:11:21.660]But this is a few things specifically
[00:11:23.670]for our commuter students.
[00:11:24.990]So our first one here is our Commuter Students Connects.
[00:11:27.780]And what these are is they're just smaller groups
[00:11:30.360]of students coming together
[00:11:31.800]before some of our big large events
[00:11:33.660]to have a group of people to go with.
[00:11:35.580]So if you wanna come on campus,
[00:11:36.810]you don't have any other friends that you wanna go with
[00:11:39.030]to these events, but you wanna meet some other people
[00:11:41.460]who are in a similar situation as you,
[00:11:43.410]you can come, look for an orientation leader
[00:11:45.930]with a Commuter Student Connects sign
[00:11:48.323]and join up with that group.
[00:11:50.430]And you can go to some of those larger events with a group.
[00:11:53.700]And there's a lot more additional details to that
[00:11:55.762]as we get closer to August in the Nebraska app.
[00:11:59.400]And then also, the second thing we have
[00:12:00.780]for commuter students is our Commuter Student Welcome.
[00:12:03.540]This will take place on Friday, August 23rd
[00:12:05.880]in the Adele Learning Commons,
[00:12:07.290]which is the north part of the library on City Campus.
[00:12:10.530]We're gonna have free iced coffee.
[00:12:12.270]It's a great come and go event.
[00:12:13.590]We always have lots of prizes
[00:12:15.270]and a great time to meet other commuter students
[00:12:17.730]who are coming onto UNL's campus as well
[00:12:19.800]for the first time to take classes.
[00:12:21.510]And then at 4 PM once that come
[00:12:23.340]and go event kind of wraps up,
[00:12:24.990]we will have a commuter student connect where we all go over
[00:12:27.810]to Memorial Stadium for the tunnel walk.
[00:12:30.060]That's where everybody rushes out onto the field
[00:12:32.100]and makes the big N in the middle
[00:12:33.570]that you've probably seen pictures of.
[00:12:34.893]It's a lot of fun and we'd really love for you
[00:12:36.720]to join us for that.
[00:12:38.850]If you do have any questions, I'd love for you to reach out.
[00:12:41.700]Again, my name is Emily Klesner Platt in the Office
[00:12:43.920]of New Student Enrollment.
[00:12:45.360]We're really excited to have you
[00:12:46.530]as a commuter student here at UNL
[00:12:48.137]and we you the best of luck in your first year.

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Life as a Commuter Student

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