Seven Springs has ended UMD shuttle service abruptly on the first day of classes, and the graduate student residents are dealing with hardship getting to campus. The alternatives thus far have doubled commute time, added financial strain or are simply unsafe at night (as proven by GSG's addition of the route to the Safety Walk Program. Seven Springs did an extremely poor job of communication of the planned discontinuation, getting graduate students to renew/sign leases without telling them the plan to stop the amenity. They have offered metro cards for the fall semester, but only to the residents who know to go see them. In addition, leases last months after the discontinuation of the metro cards so the transition plan is insufficient and flawed.
As mentioned in the September 25th Diamondback article "Real People with Lives", GSG "has been working to advocate for residents and encouraging them to voice their concerns — through paying visits to the property management office, sending emails to the company that oversees the apartment and filing complaints with the Consumer Protection Division in Maryland’s Attorney General’s office." If you, like more than 50 other residents who contacted us, have concerns about this change, or if you are interested in helping your fellow grad students with this situation, please let us know. Email gsg-office@umd.edu
Below is an example photo of how dark the vast majority of the route between campus and Seven Springs. GSG members had to rely on the lights on the Veoride scooters and bike to have any light at all.
