The MSMU Hollywood Tax
- athenianprint
- Oct 21
- 5 min read
By Katie Drain
THE FILM industry is an ever-present and flourishing part of Los Angeles. Mount Saint Mary's takes pride in its film department which accommodates students right on Hollywood Boulevard in an academic setting. This allows Film and Media students to spend time on site with high-end equipment and facilities, all of which can provide the most productive learning experience to aspiring filmmakers.
The Mount proudly boasts these facilities to all of their students, and encourages more than just Film students to try and utilize them. With all of these considerations, it's no surprise that these kinds of perks come at a cost. However, the extent of this cost can be a big surprise to students.
One of the most significant challenges of the Hollywood Studio campus is transportation. While the Mount promotes the Film department resources, it does not yet have the means to take students to and from the campuses. This commute has to be made via a personal vehicle, public transit, or Uber. From Chalon, the trip is anywhere between an hour and two hours, while Doheny can be between 30 minutes and an hour.
It is for this reason that students can find taking classes at the Hollywood Studio a source of immense stress, especially incoming freshmen who are not permitted to have vehicles on campus, unless they are out-of-state students. There is no financial compensation for personal gas expenses, nor is there anything set in place to ensure a ride, should private transportation not be reliable.
If a personal vehicle is not an option, public transit is usually the next recommendation, although this can be controversial for several reasons. If you are a Chalon student trying to use public transportation, you can't get there solely using LA city public transit. Students will first have to take a scheduled shuttle from the Chalon campus down to the Expo/Bundy stop, then take the Yellow line for 13 stops before having to transfer over to the Red line for a few more.
"We're already expected to commute between Doheny and Chalon… It’s a lot of going out of our way."
While this might seem like a time-related inconvenience, it also raises safety concerns for students who rely on public transit. Neither the Yellow nor Red lines are known for their safety, and some students avoid them due to recurring incidents and crime. But public transport remains one of the most cost-efficient options, leaving students to weigh cheaper transport against an increased security they might feel with personal vehicles.
If neither option works, the Mount offers Uber vouchers to some students. However, this option isn't consistent or reliable. Because Uber is a public platform, students must rely on a driver who is a complete stranger - a situation that can feel unnerving or inconvenient, leading some to avoid it altogether. And while the Uber voucher system is appreciated, it does not eliminate the disorganization and inconvenience of getting to the studio.
One student, a fourth year Film, Media and Social Justice major, did not want to be named but described a recent experience with the Uber voucher system. The student claimed that they had classes on Thursday and Saturday at the Hollywood film studio, and only had 67 cents left on their voucher. When they reached out to the University, they didn’t receive any response until the following Tuesday, by which point the student had already paid for their Ubers out of their own pocket. It was, they said, a major source of frustration and financial hardship.
“I don't want to have to go there and back," they told the Athenian Print. "We're already expected to commute between Doheny and Chalon… It’s a lot of going out of our way.”
Speaking of their conversations with other film students they added, “I feel like the general consensus with every other Film major that I talk to is that ‘if the class is at the Hollywood Studio, I’m probably not going to take it’.”
Other concerns about the Hollywood Studio campus center on safety. One student, who asked to remain anonymous, raised concerns about the lack of security. Most classes end after dark, they said, and Hollywood Boulevard can feel unsafe for young women, particularly if they are traveling alone.
“The exit of the studio either drops you into this side street or in an alley and that’s where we’re supposed to wait for our Uber," they said. "It just feels like it’s waiting for something to go wrong.”
Another transportation resource the Mount offers Hollywood Studio students is a Google doc, emailed to all film students at the start of each semester. The doc provides a place for students to volunteer their own vehicles and where passengers can sign up for a ride. While this sounds helpful in theory, in practice it is complicated and difficult to manage. Students must coordinate payment or gas money between drivers and passengers, many of whom are complete strangers.
One of the biggest issues, students say, is that these transit realities are simply not clear until the point where they are about to start school. “Here, specifically, they didn't make it that obvious how hard it would be to go between all three campuses," said Lora Frigerio, a third year Film, Media and Social Justice major.
"I didn't know film students are advised to live at Doheny until orientation.”
"At any time [we] get a chance to talk with administration about, it we always advocate for some kind of transportation support for our students.”
There have been calls for action regarding this controversy for several years, with requests for buses to the Hollywood Studio to be included in the existing MSMU shuttle system. Charles Bunce, a long-standing faculty member of the Mount and the Film, Media and Communication department chair, said that “At any time Kelby [Thwaits] and I get a chance to talk with administration about it, we always advocate for some kind of transportation support for our students.”
Other options have been put forward. “One of the things that Kelby and I have been advocating for with the previous CFO was the investment in a Mount Saint Mary’s minivan," said Bunce, "and designate that as the studio minivan and have a student driver program."
For many Film students, classes at the Hollywood campus are not only encouraged but
required for them to graduate. That's part of what makes transportation such a controversial issue. Students are already paying tuition, as well as an additional $397 film studio fee - a cost that has also drawn criticism - so the expectation that they cover their own travel seems excessive to many. Some question whether the financial burden and travel time commitment are worth the benefits.
“It’s both an opportunity and a challenge at MSMU,” says Bunce. “Students are going to need to be proactive and find ways to put themselves out there and make that commitment to be a part of the industry.”
A freshman student who wished to remain anonymous reflected on her experience: “I think I assumed that there was a shuttle to the studio … I knew there was a shuttle between Chalon and Doheny and so I never really asked what the transportation would be... but I wish I had kinda known what that would be like and the realities.”
The general consensus seems to be that the more pushback that comes from students, the faster change will come. For now, that may be the most realistic path forward - ensuring students voices are heard loud and clear, and their concerns taken seriously.
