First-Years Take the Wheel on Campus Transportation

Atop Palatine Hill sits the tree-lined, moss-covered campus of Lewis & Clark. For the students, faculty, and staff attempting to navigate its six-mile distance from downtown Portland, that natural charm comes with a logistical price: according to the college’s 2025 Transportation Demand Management report, between 44 and 54 percent of the campus community drives alone to campus, a rate that complicates the college’s goal of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

“I thought, let’s have students think about transportation and see how they would approach this problem,” says Liz Safran, associate professor of geological science and director of Earth system science minor.

A Course Built Around a Real Problem

First-year students are required to take a quantitative-based Numbers course as part of the Core curriculum. Safran’s Numbers course, Take Charge! Tackling Environmental Problems, was designed to be anything but a traditional lecture. Instead of working toward a final paper or exam, the course’s total of 39 students—split between its two class periods—were tasked with developing a comprehensive, cost-effective, and environmentally conscious transportation plan for the college.

Modeled after a class called Solving Complex Problems in the Terrascope program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the course placed students in charge of defining the problem, conducting research, and proposing solutions to a panel of experts.

“My colleague, Jessica Kleiss, associate professor of environmental studies, first based her Numbers course on Terrascope in 2021, asking students to bring global greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, which the students modified to focus specifically on U.S. carbon emissions,” says Safran. “I was struck by how profound her course evaluations were. It seemed like students took away a sense of agency and resilience.”

The structure of Safran’s course quickly challenged student expectations. With little direction to follow, many first-years initially found the task of developing their own transportation ideas daunting.

“It definitely frustrated me at first because I was so used to being in the education system where someone tells us what to do, following guidelines or rubrics,” says Emma Powell-Wyse BA ’29. “We had to learn from our own mistakes, not directly from a professor, which was definitely challenging but also rewarding.”

One of the most pivotal moments of that learning process came when students went on a field trip by themselves to navigate the city without cars. Armed with Hop transit cards, they relied entirely on public transportation to experience the system that L&C community members encounter on their journey to and from campus.

“My role in the class was to help students create their own learning opportunities,” says Safran. “I realized the course structure was kind of weird and different. In a way, my success hinged on making myself superfluous.”

From Data to Solutions

Back in the classroom, students turned to data. They analyzed the 2025 L&C Transportation Survey and a thesis by Helen Traczyk BA ’23, an environmental studies major, who focused her research on campus transportation issues. They found that the maximum number of parking spaces the college can have is limited by city regulations, while two-thirds of the transportation budget—about $430,000 annually—is already dedicated to the OtterBus shuttle system.

“We focused a lot on increasing how many people are taking the shuttle and how to encourage carpooling, rather than trying to fix parking,” says Milo MacAllister BA ’29.

As the semester progressed, the class evolved into a coordinated team. Students shared research over Discord, met in the library outside of class, and refined their ideas into cohesive proposals.

“There’s a lot of different thinking and passions at this school,” MacAllister says. “We were very willing to work together and meet outside of class and still have fun. I think people really do care about this community and care about bettering it—and not just for a grade.”

Their final proposals included both immediate and long-term solutions, from redesigning the OtterBus tracking system to integrating its data into Google and Apple Maps, as well as expanding routes and improving infrastructure to better connect campus with surrounding areas.

Throughout the semester, students benefited from the guidance of alumni mentors, including Traczyk.

“As a relatively recent graduate, it felt really good to reconnect with Lewis & Clark,” she says. “It made me realize that I had left my own footprints on those grounds, especially given that the students relied on my thesis so much.”

Alumni mentors gave the students feedback on every milestone of their projects, joining classes over Zoom and in-person every couple of weeks.

“If the students got feedback from me as the professor, they’d assume I’d want them to reflect that in their work,” says Safran. “Working with an alum was different. An alum is an intelligent reader who is out there in the world, who has experiences that help inform the student’s ideas.”

Support was also provided by L&C’s Writing Center , where peer tutors and Director John Holzwarth helped students move beyond traditional essays to build a professional public website showcasing their research and proposals.

Learning That Extends Beyond the Classroom

The semester culminated in a final presentation of the student transportation plans to a panel of experts, including representatives from the Portland Bureau of Transportation, Metro, Portland Community College, and Alta Planning + Design. This experience underscored the course’s emphasis on real-world engagement.

Credit: Zoe Dixon BA ’28“I was impressed with the students’ final presentation, especially given that they are only freshmen and don’t have a lot of experience presenting in such a professional way,” says Traczyk.

For students, the moment was both validating and empowering.

“It was cool at the end to see people listening to us, telling us we were smart, and realizing our ideas were something we could actually do,” says MacAllister.

As the course concluded, attention turned toward both the impact of the students’ work and their personal growth throughout the process.

“My ideas existing on their own without interference was really helpful,” Powell-Wyse says. “It made me recognize that I get to trust myself and stand alone with my ideas and that they’re impactful.”

In taking on a complex, real-world problem, these first-year students not only reimagined campus transportation but discovered what it means to learn with action.

Environmental Studies First-Year Seminar