Emily Carr students launched a campaign yesterday for a universal transit pass available to all post-secondary students.
The OnePassNow campaign, which also comprises students from Douglas College and Vancouver Community College, is a rallying cry to expand the U-Pass program, which currently only services Simon Fraser University and University of B.C. students.
Those students pay about $25 a month for a transit pass, while students at other schools pay $73 — a figure that will jump to $81 next month.
Nimmi Takkar, external relations officer for students’ unions at VCC and a spokeswoman for the OnePassNow campaign, calls the current U-Pass program discriminatory.
“A lot of students go to college because they can’t afford to go to university in the first place,” she said.
Takkar said the collective is glad Transportation Minister Shirley Bond recently reaffirmed the Liberals’ promise that the U-Pass program will be expanded by September 2010, but it wants to see action.
“At this point, we’re looking for a bit more detail,” she said. “Talk is cheap. What exactly is happening?”
