$120 too steep for a free bus ride

Student leaders on a Transit Team are reevaluating the bus plan the board of trustees passed in 1999. The students discovered the plan would cost students much more than was originally estimated, and they are exploring other options to avoid instituting a mandatory $120 transportation fee yearly for all students. The team will decide Dec. 6 if it should redraft the proposal -- and it should do so.\nTheir exploration of the issue -- and a new plan for bus transportation on this campus -- are sorely needed. The proposed expense for students is simply too high. Compared to tuition and other fees students pay, $120 might seem like a drop in the bucket, but for many, it isn't.\nSarah Stevens, a Graduate Student Organization mediator and member of the Transit Team, told the IDS that because graduate students rely primarily on their own earnings and on loans to pay for school, they would struggle more than other groups to pay this fee. And she's right.\nFor students paying their own way through school, this fee would mean an extra half-week of work at minimum wage, or it would use up part of a loan that could have gone for books, room and board or other necessities. These students should pay for bus service if they wish to use it, but with a fee this high, those who will not use it should have the chance to economize and save for more important things.\nIt is true that many students rely on parents or scholarships, not their own earnings or loans, to pay for their education. Yet it is not fair for parents or scholarship donors to essentially subsidize a city and University service their students might never even use. Many students live on campus or close enough to campus to walk to classes, and many students choose to drive to school. For these students, the $120 fee will be for nothing, even if it is not a struggle to pay it.\nThe board of trustees will look early next year at whatever new proposal the students draft. It should be one with a low mandatory fee, if there must be a mandatory fee at all. It is certainly difficult to balance the needs and budgets of every student in providing a service, but the fact is that students do not have endless resources to pay endless mandatory fees. And they should not have to subsidize campus and city buses for others if they do not intend to use them.\nStaff Vote: 12-1