The Forum

Consumers across the country are bracing for what has seems like endless increases in costs for basic living expenses. Due to sharp increases in costs for daily necessities such as housing, food, clothing, childcare, utilities and healthcare, students, now more than ever, need access to free and low-cost resources. Among the most fundamental resources integral to student success and quality of life are access to credible news and relevant information about current events, and reliable transportation.  

Metro U-Pass makes it super affordable because it provides unlimited rides on MetroBus and MetroLink during the school year for nearly 38,000 eligible students, faculty and staff.

Student Access to Transportation

True autonomy and independence begin with the freedom to move. Today’s students must be able to move about and explore freely. This includes multiple forms of mobility such as the ability to move physically and socially. Physical mobility allows students to live and work wherever they choose, as well as giving them the ability to connect to their communities as they like. For decades Metro Transit, an enterprise of parent company Bi-State Development Agency has operated as the official public transit system for the St. Louis Region. St Louis Community College is among a growing list of regional colleges and universities to participate in the Metro University Transit Pass (U-Pass) program. Each semester STLCC customizes access to the U-Pass program to meet the needs of students, allowing them to travel about the St Louis region for free using Metro Transit buses and trains.

Any student enrolled for at least one credit hour during the current semester is eligible for the U-Pass. The cost of U-Pass is covered by maintenance fees included with tuition, so there is no additional cost for students. U-Pass provides bottomless benefits for thousands across the STLCC system. According to Kimberly Cella, executive director of Metro Transit partner organization Citizens for Modern Transit, “Metro U-Pass makes it super affordable because it provides unlimited rides on MetroBus and MetroLink during the school year for nearly 38,000 eligible students, faculty and staff.” Eligible STLCC students need to be in good financial standing on an NBS payment plan, have financial aid authorized, or have classes paid in full for the current semester.

Find more information about obtaining your Metro U-Pass:

stlcc.edu/admissions/preparing-for-the-semester/getting-to-campus.aspx

Students who commute to campus using personal vehicles will find that parking is always free on STLCC campuses. Students with disabilities are also eligible for parking tags for use on any STLCC campus.

For more information about obtaining parking tags, contact the Disability Services office at your respective campus:

stlcc.edu/student-support/disability-services/index.aspx

Young adults are especially likely to get news from Instagram and TikTok.

Student Access to News Sources

Over the last two decades social media platforms have grown to replace traditional news outlets as the main sources of news for people consuming content online. According to a December 2025 Pew-Knight Initiative analysis “young adults are especially likely to get news from Instagram and TikTok,” and “are also more likely to say they prefer social media for getting the most up-to-date information about breaking news.” Because young adults between the ages of 18-29 (among other age groups) are spending substantial amounts of time online viewing social media content, it becomes even more vital that educational institutions prioritize providing access to independent and objective news sources. Media and information proficiency are crucial for students to ensure their abilities to navigate today’s complex and divisive information landscape. Social media platform news sources often lack genuinely objective, independent, and fact-based journalism. In fact, social media algorithms are designed to boost sensational content which emotionally charges readers with the purpose of capturing clicks rather than arming individuals with solid fact-based information. Given these trends in how people are acquiring information about the world around them, it becomes critical that colleges and universities incorporate media literacy and critical thinking skills into the foundations of education programs.   

STLCC accordingly offers a diverse range of free access to news sources for any students, faculty and staff who attend any campus. All attendees who are enrolled part-time, full-time or working as staff or faculty within STLCC systems have free access to thousands of news sources from around the world.

Through comprehensive databases like Access World News and digital news resources like News Bank, STLCC students, staff and faculty can access familiar publications such as the St. Louis Post Dispatch (stltoday.com), Kansas City Star, Missouri Independent, or St Louis Business Journal.

STLCC Libraries also allow access to many regional Missouri publications such as the Booneville Daily News, St Joseph Telegraph, Pulaski County Mirror, Jefferson County Journal, Ozark County Times, Laclede County Record, Joplin Examiner, and dozens of other regional newspapers published throughout the state of Missouri.

Additional databases like Factiva, Nexis Uni, Newspaper Source, Academic OneFile, and PressReader allow students to access publications like the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Economist, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Atlantic, Time, USA Today, the Guardian, the Independent, Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post, and the Times (London).

STLCC Libraries also offer additional access to research databases and collections at other academic institutions including MOBIUS (Missouri Library Network), which includes most college and university libraries in Missouri, such as University of Missouri-St Louis (UMSL) Libraries, Washington University School of Medicine-Bernard Becker Medical Library, and St Louis University Libraries.

Students can freely access these and literally thousands of other news sources that are available while using STLCC Library resources. 

https://stlcc.edu/libraries/

Students, faculty and staff have free access to the internet and significant online content while on campus of any of the STLCC locations. Through licensing agreements with Microsoft Corporation, the college offers free access to Microsoft Office 365 including mobile, desktop and web versions. While STLCC does not have a comparable, institution-wide licensing agreement for Apple software, they do offer exclusive and significant discounts on Apple products in addition to Dell, Adobe and AT&T products and services as a part of the college’s overall student discount program.

STLCC Student Discount Program:

stlcc.edu/student-support/personal-support/student-discounts.aspx

Stay informed and follow our ongoing reporting as we explore more in upcoming issues about STLCC students’ abilities to access reliable transportation, news and information.