The Observer, March 28, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 22
RTA U-Pass system gets second look
With $25, a Case student can get a few good meals that aren't from Fribley, go see a show at Playhouse Square, or catch an Indians game at "The P." However, undergraduates – and possibly soon graduate students – are required to spend $25 every semester on something they may never use – an RTA pass.
In 2000, USG passed of the U-Pass Initiative, designed to give students unlimited rides on Cleveland's public transportation system and get them out into the community.
A round trip via bus or rapid costs $3.50. To get full value out of the pass, students must take eight round trips per semester, or about one every two weeks. This program is lucrative for some students.
"There's times when I don't realize I'll need it, but I do and I have it," said junior Anna Wieser. "But I leave and go places with the rapid and bus more than other people."
For others, having the pass is useful but not essential.
"I don't use it very much," said junior Bridget McHugh. "It might be cheaper for me to do a pay-as-you-go."
"My parents pay for it, so...," said sophomore Tyler Allen.
Last semester Access Services printed 3951 RTA passes, including 15 replacements. Of these, 2870 were picked up, leaving 27 percent of the passes sitting on a shelf in the basement of Crawford. In previous surveys conducted by USG, a majority of undergraduates felt that the RTA passes should not be mandatory for students.
The Graduate Student Senate (GSS) is looking into a modified form of the U-Pass. Changes for the graduate student pass would include a requirement to purchase the pass during the summer term, but would allow graduate students who do not live in Cuyahoga County to opt out of the program.
Last spring, a survey was passed around the graduate student body to judge interest in the program. Although 79 percent of respondents said they thought it was important to have reduced-fare RTA passes for graduate students, only 48 percent were in favor of requiring all graduate students to participate in the pass program. If the program were made optional, 75 percent of respondents indicated that they would be willing to pay for a pass if the price were right.
The GSS transportation committee met with RTA representatives to discuss their choices. RTA was very clear that there could be no optional pass program, according to Jimmy Harris, a biomedical engineering graduate student on the transportation committee.
The university expressed concern about the opt-out clause for non-Cuyahoga County residents, who are in a much higher proportion for the graduate school than for undergraduates, but the transportation committee pushed for it. "The expectations of graduate students are different than for undergraduates," said Harris.
GSS is holding a referendum over the next few weeks to determine if their RTA pass program will be implemented. According to their bylaws, a two-thirds majority vote of no less than one-quarter of the graduate student body – only 17 percent of the population – is required to pass the referendum.
The U-Pass program is modeled after programs at Boston University and the University of Chicago, and is also in place at Cleveland State University. It is currently only available to undergraduate students.
