The Promise Scholar Program (PSP) gas cards were compromised in September, forcing students district-wide to resort to Uber and Clipper cards as a transportation incentive substitution. Usually, all PSP students could walk into their bookstore and receive their $50 monthly gas card, which could only be used at ARCO gas stations. However, students began finding, upon attempting to buy gas, it had no money on it. 

Jeremy Evangelista-Ramos, acting director of PSP, said it is not an issue on the district’s side of the operation, it is the result of an issue with the company who supplies the gas cards.

“Neither the Promise programs nor the bookstores have controls on the backend to rectify the issue at hand,” Evangelista-Ramos said.

Evangelista-Ramos also said the program has worked hard with the bookstores and district office to make sure students were taken care of immediately.

Students could switch their program incentives from a transportation incentive to one of the others, such as the meal cards, which can be used at Pacific Dining.

Skyline sophomore student Alexa Mendoza, who has been with PSP for three years, used the gas card all through the spring semester. Since they have been unavailable, Mendoza said she doesn’t have the need to use the Uber or Clipper cards, because she wouldn’t use them as often, and finds the meal cards to be helpful as a substitution. 

However, she also said, if the gas cards were still available, she would still be using them. Evangelista-Ramos said the district is expected to receive a just for you new batch of gas cards, but did not state a time frame. 

However, when the new batch does arrive, PSP will distribute them to all students who qualify, and even the ones who had problems with the original gas cards at the beginning of the semester.