Finally, a summer U-Pass — but it’s only for students taking summer courses. At least I’ll be getting in shape this summer.
From the perspective of the university, a U-Pass for students who are taking summer courses is genius. Students pay for the courses they take, and they pay for the U-Pass that comes with it. Doubling up on the charges, very smart Carleton, but also very inconvenient for working students.
We all know the reality of finding summer jobs, and it’s a drag to say the least, but sometimes we get lucky and land a good position. So what happens when your job is in the city you go to school in, and not the city of your hometown? Or if you don’t have your own car to get to work and definitely don’t have the financial means to purchase one? You turn to public transit.
It’s a great thing to have a U-Pass during the year as a way to get to and from school, but as May rolls around and the conventional school year ends, many students find themselves stranded in the city, gathering loose change and borrowing friends’ Presto passes in order to get to work.
Here’s a break down: in my first year of university, the cost of my U-Pass built into my tuition totalled $376. Second year, my U-Pass cost me $385.40.
The U-Pass that comes with the registration of summer courses is priced at $192.70. Once school has ended and my bank account has been emptied, finding an additional $192 can be pretty difficult. It also seems rather counter-productive to spend my first summer paycheque on a bus pass to get me to where I made that money in the first place. However, adding about $200 to my already $8,000 tuition doesn’t seem like such a stretch.
So I propose this: have the university take the $192.70 charge for the summer U-Pass and allocate the money into the existing U-Pass charges for the September to April U-Pass. If students aren’t native Ottawans, decide to spend the summer outside of the city, or just don’t need to use public transit, the university can then provide an option to “opt out” of the summer pass during the year, just as students are given the option to opt out of their health insurance.
For myself and many other students, the success and continuation of our education is directly related to the money we are able to accumulate from our jobs in the summer time. Having a source of transportation at our disposal would be such a useful and appreciated resource.
Creating a summer U-Pass for students registered in summer courses is absolutely a step in the right direction, but maybe it’s time for a leap. I am hoping by the time I graduate from Carleton, I will have been able to ride the bus around the city of Ottawa in June, July, and August with my U-Pass.
