Thinking outside the car:
a look at Regis and metro-area public transportation
Justin Parnell, Associate Editor
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Last spring, Regis University Student Government Association Senate looked into enrolling in the Regional Transit District (RTD) College Pass program for the Regis College student body. The College Pass would have granted students free access on Denver local, limited, express, regional, and skyRide bus service, in addition to light rail service. RUSGA Senate passed a resolution; however, Senate did not submit the necessary written report to the Executive Budget Committee (EBC) in time for the January Board of the Trustees tuition and fees agenda.
The College Pass is one-year agreement between RTD and a college that gives all students a transit pass for a low semester fee. The agreement would have been effective between September 2005 and September 2006, for Regis College students. In a campus-wide survey of 270 students, shy of the 35% response rate than RTD sales executive for the College Pass program Gorganne Fisher recommended, 80% of students stated they would support an increase in student fees to fund a student bus pass program.
The survey was conducted by members of Senate in the Student Center last spring for a week. Survey results also showed that students who support the student bus pass proposal expected to ride an RTD light rail or bus to or from Regis an average of 2.4 days per week. Analyzing the data, Fisher responded with a revenue summary proposing a $28.38 per semester student fee that is necessary to fund the program. With this fee, the College Pass program seeks to recover what it is currently getting from student-riders, before the pass is implemented..
With the high support rate from students and RTD's results, Senate passed a resolution in accordance with their bylaws for the increased assessment. According to Joe Weber, Vice Provost and Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, "Senate must forward the same resolution through Diane Cooper (Dean of Students) and Allan Service (Provost)" Weber is also the liaison to the EBC.
Once forwarded, the resolution showing that the pass is supported by of the majority of Regis College students needs to be submitted to the Executive Budget Committee. However, Weber confirms that no such was letter was submitted.
On missing the last year's deadline, then Student Vice President Frank Haug admits, "We (RUSGA) did not know how the process worked." Even though the Senate's resolution missed last year's budget cycle, Weber says the EBC would have still accepted the validated resolution as long Senate had explained that the College Pass program serves the greater good of the Regis College and traditional undergraduate Rueckert-Hartman School for Health Professions student body.
Haug, now President, working with the Student Vice President Danny Gallagher, hopes to re-survey the student body in the next month in order to meet this year's financial and budgeting deadline. However, Fisher explains that re-surveying students (and again getting a favorable response rate around 80 percent) would have negligible effect on the approximately 30 dollars per semester rate for college students in the Denver Metro area.
For the College Pass program to go into effect for 2006-07, the Senate would have to submit the resolution to the EBC by the end of November 2005 in order for the Board of Trustees to approve the proposed student fee increase during their winter agenda.
"Assuming the EBC agrees with the proposal, we would take it to the Board of Trustees
for approval at their January meeting," Weber states. "The increased fee would then be effective for fall term 2006."
If RUSGA Senate votes for the bus program and fee increase, Regis would become the seventh university €" alongside the University of Colorado-Denver and Boulder, Metropolitan State College of Denver, Community College of Denver, Naropa University and University of Denver €" to join the RTD College Pass program. All students are welcome to attend and vote at RUSGA Senate meetings.