Lipscomb students living off campus are finding it more and more expensive to get themselves to classes with gas prices soaring at the pumps.
An obvious solution to this problem might be found in students carpooling or taking forms of public transportation like the Nashville M.T.A. buses to save money that would otherwise be spent filling up with gas.
Freshman Sadie Stone from Louisville, Ky., doesn’t even like driving past gas stations.
“Lately every time I pass a gas station my heart sinks,” Stone said. “Anger fills my body when I realize the continual increase in gas prices. There is no way I can continue to afford $3.59 a gallon. Something will have to give and I am not happy about it.”
However, some students like sophomore Rachel Hacker, a communications major from Gallatin, Tenn., haven’t noticed much of an increase in gas prices. But whenHacker realized how much a gallon of gas costs, she planned to be more conscientious with her money.
“I’ll be budgeting carefully to make the drive home to Gallatin and to other necessary places like the grocery store more convenient and affordable in relation to my inflow of cash,” Hacker said.
Another factor affecting students who commute to campus daily is the type of vehicle they drive and what kind of gas mileage they get.
In years prior the most relevant feature when college students were considering what car to buy might have been the color or the year. These days, different issues are in the forefront of people’s minds, like how far they can drive on a tank of gas.
Hacker drives a Honda Civic that gets 40 miles per gallon in the city and 43 miles per gallon on the highway.
An instructor in the Ministry Department at Lipscomb and local resident of downtown Nashville, Rob McRay said that he thought rising gas prices weren’t that big of a deal to most people.
McRay noted that the real issue of spending more money per tank of gas was more of a hindrance to the daily life of poor people in society and trucking companies that depend on gasoline for the success of their business.
But junior health and physical education major Dillon Seigenthaler, Franklin, Tenn., disagrees.
“The gas prices stink very, very much,” said Seigenthaler. “They are absolutely ridiculous and I feel horrible that my parents have to pay that much for my gas. The high prices are going to hit me even harder when I have to pay for it myself.”
Sophomore education major Jesseca Kahn from Bell Buckle, Tenn., thinks that the rising gas prices are affecting everyone in the country negatively.
“Unfortunately we are extremely dependent on oil and any event around the world can and very often does affect our prices,” Kahn said. “I think it is time that we start focusing on other alternatives than oil so that this gas epidemic can come to an end.”
On March 28, gas prices peaked at $3.79 for regular unleaded at the Shell station on the corner of 1616 Franklin Rd & Old Moores Ln. Websites like NashvilleGasPrices.com has been set up to assist Tennessee residents in finding the cheapest gas prices in their area. You can also follow the website via Facebook and Twitter.