Students would get free transit cards, called the U-Pass, in exchange for a nominal $25 deduction from their bursar’s accounts. RTA would get thousands of daily riders. Congestion downtown would be reduced. No new parking garages would need to be constructed.
Its upshot “should be a lessened demand for on-campus parking,” the university’s webpage read in 2008, “as students choose to take public transportation.”
Well, come this fall semester, CSU students may no longer make that choice.
On Wednesday, Cleveland State announced that it would be cancelling the U-Pass come August, therefore eliminating a go-to avenue of transportation to classes used by thousands of commuting students.
In an email sent out Wednesday morning, CSU admins blamed new state laws that are forcing them to cancel the semesterly RTA U-Pass fee, $57.50 as of last fall, deducted from students’ accounts. They did not specify precisely which law, but offered an alternative: buy a regular RTA pass (at $95 a month) or drive a car to school.
“I am truly sorry for the stress this is causing, including the unexpected financial hardship caused by the abrupt nature of this change,” CSU President Laura Bloomberg wrote in a second statement to students on Wednesday afternoon.
“While we cannot control the state regulations that impact the student fee structure,” she added, “we are working internally on options to lessen the immediate financial impact of this for our students.”
Notice of the U-Pass removal immediately riled students, especially those without a car or who can’t afford the jump in monthly expenditures. Four months of RTA passes will run them roughly $322 more per semester, about twice as much as CSU’s cheapest parking permit.
“I think this is really bad,” Michael, 22, a senior mechanical engineering student, told Scene. “A lot of friends use it. Especially foreign students who don’t have cars—it’s the only way they can get around.”
Though Michael often rides to campus with his brother, on days where class times conflict he relies on the 55 bus to take him home to his place in West Park.
But now, he’s at a relative loss figuring out how to handle the fall semester. Buy a car? Walk? Give in and shell out $58 a month for that RTA pass?
“I don’t know, it’s just way too much,” he said. “At that point I wouldn’t even consider taking transit.”
As might not thousands of Vikings.
Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, Clevelanders For Public Transit released a petition to nudge CSU to reconsider cancelling the U-Pass. Three hours after it went live, more than 1,200 people signed the petition.
“Eliminating this program will have a detrimental impact on students,” CPT wrote. “Class attendance, access to internships, campus involvement, and student retention will suffer.”
Deciding to axe a free bus subsidy for tens of thousands of students for the first time since 2003 carries the implication that CSU is saying bye to the U-Pass as a form of necessary cost cutting.
Last year, a CSU budget plan estimated a $7.7 million shortfall for 2025, which was trimmed down recently to a somewhat healthier $2 million.
Regardless, Bloomberg backed cuts to the school sports—including its wrestling, women’s golf and softball teams—along with staff buyouts. Tuition saw a three percent increase for incoming undergrads and graduate students.
Cleveland State did not return a request for comment from Scene as of Wednesday evening.
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This article appears in Cleveland SCENE 7/30/25.
