On Monday, Off Campus College Transport (OCCT) officially converted the DCL bus route into the DCR. The alteration came in response to complaints from city residents about unwanted traffic in residential neighborhoods on Leroy Street. As a result, the city of Binghamton requested that the buses be re-routed away from the area.
While some students brushed this off as a minor inconvenience, others met the change with uproar. Students became outwardly vocal on social media platforms, with one petition garnering over 300 signatures in support of keeping the DCL the way it was. These students felt as if the city and OCCT were unjust in complying with the requests of local residents.
We firmly believe that the ideas of Binghamton University students should be received with seriousness and respected by those inside and outside the University. However, that relationship is a two-way street; before students voice their concerns toward the outside community, it is vital that they first consider the context in which they are raising them.
The OCCT service is a privilege granted to BU students, not an absolute right. While its services are beneficial to the student body, the city is under no obligation to go out of its way to accommodate our blue buses. Many students will only live in the area for a year or two before moving out. We must keep in mind that for many of us, the West Side is only a temporary residence, and it should be the city’s priority to the fill the needs of the permanent residents who make up the stable backbone of the community. Furthermore, it is easy to forget that these buses serve no purpose for local residents, so the city is doing us a favor by allowing them in the area.
It seems that all too often college students confuse privileges with entitlements. More often than not, we fail to take a step back and see ourselves as part of the bigger picture. The city that we live in while at BU is not ours; we’re guests for the time we are here. The residents at times welcome, and at others put up with, a student takeover of a large portion of the West Side, as we inhabit houses built for families in droves.
Our voices are powerful tools, so it is important that we do not waste their power on issues that hold less weight. We must recognize when it is the proper time to act feverishly behind them, and when is time to taper them to a more conversational tone. It seems that the new DCR route falls into the latter category.
Earlier this month, we, the Pipe Dream Editorial Board, called upon the University to re-examine its relationship with the surrounding community. As the school expands and grows at a rapid clip, it must collaborate in creative ways with this community if it truly wants to enact positive change for its students and the region.
If students and administrators alike continue to be short-sighted and fail to recognize the context in which the school’s issues relate to broader ones, then there is little hope moving forward. However, as the BU community begins to see itself as intertwined with the larger one, we can successfully re-route our path toward a better one.