Monday, January 19, 2009

For student-commuters who are stranded by the strike...

For students at the University of Ottawa, that commute might become a bit easier -- if a new program to find students' temporary residences is successful. From the school's press release:

To help its students cope with the continuing OC Transpo bus strike, the University of Ottawa has created a free temporary housing program to students who are having difficulty getting to their classes.

The program will put students in contact with Ottawa residents and University of Ottawa employees who live within walking distance of either of our two campuses (downtown and Ottawa Hospital area) and who are willing to open their homes for temporary residence until transit service resumes, at no cost to students. It will also put students in touch with volunteers who live outside of these areas but who are able to provide daily transportation to the University or to one of the shuttle pick-up points. The program will be coordinated by uOttawa Housing Services.

[...]

Students interested in applying to take part in the housing program can contact our Off-Campus Housing services at 613-564-5400, ext. 5057, at offcamp1@uottawa.ca or visit them at 90 University, Room 145, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.
The release goes on to state that school president Allan Rock will take in two students at his house, which is about a 20-minute walk from campus.

Also, the school will commence operations on a new shuttle route "from Blair station, stopping at the St-Laurent station heading to uOttawa."

UPDATE: The Citizen has picked up the story (essentially re-printing the school's release).

1 comment:

Bob said...

FYI: Algonquin College has offered emergency billets since December, when the strike began. We also increased our shuttle services this week, adding a route and additional trips, and are now serving between 1500-2000 students per day.

Also, we've cleared more than 140 parking spots to increase availability, and hundreds of people continue to use the ride board.