2008 Woodie Awards
Fee would've made GET free
A registration fee would have made Golden Empire Transit free for BC students but was rejected because all students wouldn't use it.
Chris Garza
Issue date: 10/24/07 Section: News
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An additional $15 registration fee might have assisted students who rely on public transportation, but last year the proposal was revoked by the SGA.
"Half the reason why I don't come to school is because I don't have the money to catch the bus and get here," said Bakersfield College student Deaquanita C. Martin.
Martin is commenting about a proposal that Golden Empire Transit had brought forth to the BC Student Government Association last year about making a semester long bus pass usable via student's Gade Card.
"We were proposing an unlimited access student pass at a one time $15 a semester transit fee for use of the GET," said GET Customer Support Supervisor Jill Smith. "For that fee the student would use their student ID card and show the driver to get unlimited access."
The $15 would be added into the registration fees at the beginning of the semester and be a mandatory fee for all students to pay.
A regular month pass for the bus is $30 a month and over a four-month time span, that equates to $120.
GET contacted BC Marketing Director Amber Chiang and tried to make this work. Smith said that she, along with Chiang and a BC student made a trip about six months in advance to a conference in Michigan where the idea of the once-a-semester fee was born.
"Right after I started [at BC] we went to a conference in Michigan," said Chiang. "They told me about a program they were developing."
The conference dealt with universities that have a fee included in their registration and students can ride where they want. The other universities are much larger, but they figured that something like that might be able to work here at BC.
"We worked on it about five or six months before taking it to then SGA President Micah Card and Dean of Students Don Turn ey," said Chiang.
Card, along with the rest of the SGA, discussed the matter, and were deciding on how to act on it.
"They did have a vigorous and lively debate," said Turney.
According to Turney, after debating, they then asked one another this question, "How could they have asked 16,000 other students to pay the bill for 1,000 students? Whether its $5 or $100? Is it right to ask them to pay?"
"Half the reason why I don't come to school is because I don't have the money to catch the bus and get here," said Bakersfield College student Deaquanita C. Martin.
Martin is commenting about a proposal that Golden Empire Transit had brought forth to the BC Student Government Association last year about making a semester long bus pass usable via student's Gade Card.
"We were proposing an unlimited access student pass at a one time $15 a semester transit fee for use of the GET," said GET Customer Support Supervisor Jill Smith. "For that fee the student would use their student ID card and show the driver to get unlimited access."
The $15 would be added into the registration fees at the beginning of the semester and be a mandatory fee for all students to pay.
A regular month pass for the bus is $30 a month and over a four-month time span, that equates to $120.
GET contacted BC Marketing Director Amber Chiang and tried to make this work. Smith said that she, along with Chiang and a BC student made a trip about six months in advance to a conference in Michigan where the idea of the once-a-semester fee was born.
"Right after I started [at BC] we went to a conference in Michigan," said Chiang. "They told me about a program they were developing."
The conference dealt with universities that have a fee included in their registration and students can ride where they want. The other universities are much larger, but they figured that something like that might be able to work here at BC.
"We worked on it about five or six months before taking it to then SGA President Micah Card and Dean of Students Don Turn ey," said Chiang.
Card, along with the rest of the SGA, discussed the matter, and were deciding on how to act on it.
"They did have a vigorous and lively debate," said Turney.
According to Turney, after debating, they then asked one another this question, "How could they have asked 16,000 other students to pay the bill for 1,000 students? Whether its $5 or $100? Is it right to ask them to pay?"
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