Students may see future hike in bus pass price
by Clayton Woullard
The Metropolitan
MStudents at Auraria could experience a price increase on their student
bus pass fee in two years when a price cap is set to expire.
This year students at Metro, UCD and CCD pay about $22 for the bus pass,
a 45 percent discount, which offers students free access to local, regional
and express services, as well as a $4 discount on SkyRide. RTD offers
a monthly pass for $135 to its regular customers.
The campus’ current contract with RTD is set to expire next August,
but RTD has said they would extend the contract until the end of the 2005-2006
academic year, when students will be able to ratify in the spring. The
contract also stipulates that RTD will not charge the school more than
7.5 percent of the previous year’s charge, or no more than $24 per
semester for students. This school year, RTD charges Auraria $1,700,055,
which the Auraria Higher Education Center then divides by the amount of
students to calculate the student fee. Under the 7.5 percent cap, RTD
could only charge a maximum of $1,827,559. But, come August of 2006 that
could change.
In 2002, RTD’s Board of Directors negotiated the 7.5 percent cap
with the University of Colorado at Boulder, which did not want its bus
pass program to exceed 10 percent because it would force the university
to put it to a student vote. So the RTD board set the 7.5 percent cap
for the other five schools, which include the three schools at Auraria,
the University of Denver and Naropa University in Boulder. The cap will
expire at the end of the 2005-2006 school year, at which time the RTD
board will have the option of lifting the cap completely, setting a different
cap, or keeping the existing one. Jeff Stamper, Tivoli Student Union assistant
director, said if the cap is lifted, the student bus pass fee could be
increased to $27, which, he said, is based on what RTD has said is the
actual cost of the program.
According to documents provided by RTD, the actual cost of the program,
based on how often Auraria students ride the bus or light rail, is $2,293,254—$593,199
more than what RTD is currently charging Auraria. If the RTD board decides
to lift the cap to match that price students on campus could see a significant
increase in the price of the bus pass.
The Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board wanted to negotiate
a two-year contract with RTD rather than the one-year extension for the
2005-2006 school year.
Georgann Fisher, Advertising Sales and Student Pass Administrator for
RTD, who’s also a UCD graduate student, said this would be impossible
because one year would be under the 7.5 percent cap and the next year
may or may not be in place.
“We don’t want to cause panic and have everybody think the
cap is going away,” Fisher said.
She also said RTD will not know the ridership figures for the 2006-2007
school year until later.
Stamper said it’s important for SACAB to look into these contract
negotiations this early to make sure the bus pass is kept affordable,
but he doesn’t expect any huge increase in the price of the program
for the 2006-2007 school year.
“My sense is that they would allow for the same stipulations to
work that they would charge on ridership with the same discount in place,”
Stamper said, “just that there wouldn’t be a cap in place.”
Patrick Jiner, SACAB President, said he thinks if the student bus pass
fee is kept under $40, students would be willing to pay for it. He said
it’s important that students remember they’re getting a really
good deal.
“We’re definitely saving more than it’d be to buy it
from King Soopers,” Jiner said. “RTD’s doing us a really
big favor, but we’re doing them a favor, too, because we’re
guaranteeing them income.”
Fisher echoed that and said students shouldn’t expect a great increase
in their student fee, but with increased ridership due to increased enrollment
at all three schools on campus, and possibly from RTD expansion with FasTracks,
the price will go up. By how much is the question that just can’t
be answered.
“We don’t anticipate a huge change,” she said. “We
just don’t have enough details to know how it’s going to change.”
FasTracks is RTD’s $4.7 billion, 12-year plan to increase light
rail and bus services throughout the Denver Metro area, which was approved
by voters last week. It will increase transit sales tax throughout the
Denver Metro area by $4 per $10 purchase.
RTD Sales Manager Andy Todaro suggested AHEC could soften the blow of
any increase by increasing the student fee by perhaps an extra dollar
than what Auraria needs to meet the RTD cost. This would give AHEC extra
money to offset the next year’s cost.
The Auraria campus has offered a student bus pass through RTD since 1995
and has put the bus pass fee up for student vote every two years, which
is one reason SACAB wanted a two-year contract rather than a one-year
extension.
Historically, Auraria students have voted for the student bus pass fee
by a large margin.
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