A ridership survey designed by University of Notre Dame students will yield valuable information for , South Bend’s public transportation system.

“The customer satisfaction survey, designed by Notre Dame students and then implemented by those same students while riding our local buses, benefits us in a number of ways,” said Jeanette Pancoas, TRANSPO marketing manager. “Not only do we have more comprehensive information about our riders, but the presence of the students surveying riders on the bus conveyed a genuine concern for customer feedback.”

Logistics and timing were crucial to the success of the project, which was conducted by students of , undergraduate analytics program director in strategic planning and institutional research and a concurrent assistant professor of sociology.

The schedules of 18 bus routes changed in April, midway through the semester. Gunty coordinated the schedules of 33 students to administer surveys in both English and Spanish on 54 rides — two to three students per ride — and at the central bus station in downtown South Bend at peak and off-peak times.

Gunty needed to be able to guarantee the timeliness of the project’s completion and the quality of his students’ work, and assure that the fieldwork met his strict criteria for quality learning for his students. The criteria were met to ensure a powerful outcome for all involved.

Gunty utilizes community-based research principles to teach the research methods course. The short-term project was ideal as the required skills had just been covered in the course.

Utilizing a studio approach, Gunty brought in the client — in this case, two TRANSPO employees — to make a brief presentation to his students about the type of questions they needed answered.

Gunty described that class as “magical.” During the 20 minutes following the client presentation, 75 percent of the students participated, asking questions of the employees to better understand the project needs.

“Like good scientists, the students asked all the right questions," says Gunty. "They were able to clarify the purpose of the project, anticipate possible issues and formulate a plan — all skills that you cannot teach in a classroom. Learning these skills in the field is vital to their future professional pursuits.”

Timing was also important. If Gunty introduced the project too early in the semester, the students would not yet have studied the needed skills to execute the project successfully. If he waited too long, they would not have the three weeks needed to collect data from local TRANSPO customers while riding the buses and administering surveys at designated times on designated routes.

“The commitment and professionalism of Professor Gunty and his students were the biggest contributors to the success of this project,” said Pancoast, “and the mutual respect each partner displayed throughout the process was invaluable.”

As a part of a one-credit, community-based learning course offered through the University of Notre Dame’s (CSC) over the summer, 54 Notre Dame football players spent mornings in the classroom discussing texts on ethics, and then afternoons interacting with participants of local area organizations.

“Our refugee children looked forward to these days with the players. But the appreciation was for the person, not for the name.�� These kids had never heard of American football or Notre Dame before,” says Esther van Stam, casework coordinator at the American Red Cross.
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“The football players in turn told me they learned a lot about refugees…some stereotypes were broken down. Some of our clients had a prejudice against African Americans, and some of the players in turn had certain ideas about Muslims and Arabs. This was a good opportunity to see a person instead of a label,” van Stam adds.

Notre Dame student athlete Brandon Newman was paired with a young Iraqi boy at the Red Cross. “At first I found the Iraqi children in the program to be loud, boisterous and physical. However, I learned that this was just a cultural aspect that does not necessarily result in the violence Americans see on TV.”

Newman enjoyed building trust with “Zaid,” later realizing that the young Iraqi boy had only recently arrived in the U.S. with his grandmother.�� “As long as I am in South Bend, I want to be a part of his life,” Newman says.

Bill Purcell ’86, ’92 M.Div., and Mike Hebbeler, both of the Center for Social Concerns, designed the course to include various ethical frameworks—personal, professional, sexual and global. A key part of the course involved student reflection on the ethical decision-making they observed during their field work.

The students spent afternoons at the , the Center for the Homeless, the Red Cross, La Casa de Amistad, Healthwin, Perley Primary Center and at South Bend’s Logan Center.

“We want students to look internally at their own ethics, and then explore how ethics affect vulnerable populations right here in South Bend,” says Purcell, co-instructor and associate director at the CSC.

During the course, guest speakers spoke on topics such as vocation, community and professional ethics.�� Co-instructor Mike Hebbeler highlighted a talk by former Irish football player Oscar McBride ’94.��

The students were especially moved to hear how McBride struggled with his identity off the field in 2008, after many years in the NFL.��

McBride, who now works for the Fit For Life Youth Foundation, dared players to think in a new way about their futures apart from football, “You go down with a career-ending injury today…what are you going to do?”

Several student athletes also took an empathy training class at Healthwin, a local rehabilitation and nursing facility.

These young and healthy students were placed in wheelchairs and “given” a disability (a stroke with limited use of their left side, for example).

The players slowly climbed ramps and ambled around the grounds to learn how tiring wheelchair transportation can be.

Healthwin staff also explained the various diets and the difficulty many residents have swallowing. The student athletes were then fitted for glasses that showed how tunnel and blurred vision occur with age.�� The students played games using the specialty glasses, and found how difficult it was to throw or catch a ball.

Karen Martindale, an administrator at Healthwin, described the delight and anticipation of residents as they watched out the windows each day for students’ arrival.�� One elderly resident took extra time getting ready for the arrival of her assigned student. “It was nice to get dressed and ready—especially to have a young man calling!” she said.

Originally published by Allison Nanni at on September 15, 2011.