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Uber is giving Temple University $200,000 worth of free rides for students

The ride-sharing app will offer up to four free rides worth $20 each to Temple students to help them get home safe.

Lenfest Circle, under the Bell Tower on the campus of Temple University. A new partnership with Uber will allow Temple students to take four free Uber rides in an effort to promote safety on campus.
Lenfest Circle, under the Bell Tower on the campus of Temple University. A new partnership with Uber will allow Temple students to take four free Uber rides in an effort to promote safety on campus.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Temple University students can take free Uber rides to avoid unsafe situations this semester and get home safely, according to the Temple News, the university’s student-run newspaper.

Students will receive access to four free rides costing up to $20 through the end of 2023 as part of Temple’s partnership with Uber, the ridesharing company.

The $200,000 Uber has made available to the university is thanks to an agreement with Temple’s student organization, Student Activists Against Sexual Assault. The club belongs to a local chapter of It’s on Us, a nonprofit that works to prevent sexual assaults on campuses around the country. It’s on Us was founded in 2014 as a recommendation from the White House Task Force to Prevent Sexual Assault.

“By lowering the economic barrier to entry into using Uber to get home safe at night, we’re really hoping that we’re able to help our Temple students feel safe moving in and around their campus community,” Tracey Vitchers, executive director of It’s On Us, told the Temple News.

Uber and It’s on Us launched a similar program last year at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.

“Our partnership with It’s on Us and Temple University will provide students in need with an option for a way to get to and from campus and will act as a model as we explore bringing this program to other campuses around the country,” said Julia Paige, Uber’s head of global social impact.

The free rides can be used to travel within a 9½-mile radius of Temple’s main campus on North Broad Street. Students are required to log into the Uber app with their an email and use the code “TempleRideHome” to redeem their free rides.

“It could really drastically decrease the amount of sexual violence happening on our campus, to have that option and not be worried about the financial vulnerabilities of it,” Ray Epstein, founder and president of Student Activists Against Sexual Assault, told the Temple News.

In 2020, the former head of a fraternity at Temple University was sentenced to up to seven years in prison for attempted sexual assault. This year several women came forward with complaints about a Temple assistant football coach, which include allegations of sexual assault.

Although Temple saw a decrease in violent crimes in the first five months of the year in the area that the Temple officers patrol, a Temple police officer was fatally shot in February near the campus.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story identified campuses where Uber may partner for free student rides in the future. The reference has been removed since Uber has not formalized those arrangements.