By Kristina Mameli, Acting Staff Reporter free pancake breakfast presented Ae the Douglas Students Union hursday offered students food and also some food for thought. Student unions from Douglas College, University of British Columbia, Emily Carr and Vancouver Community College came together to launch an ambitious campaign urging Premier Gordon Campbell to make good on his election promise to implement an affordable, universal transit pass for all Metro Vancouver students. The overall goal of the OnePassNow campaign, which uses social media such as texting, email, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to relay their message to students, U pissed About U-Pass? Student unions of UBC, Douglas, Emily Carr and VCC join forces to demand a $25 universal U-Pass for all Metro Vancouver students. that they present a FastTrax transit strip adorning their student cards. “To make things worse, last week, TransLink announced that they will be is a $25 per month U-Pass for over 100,000 increasing their monthly fare passes by 10 post-secondary students in Metro Vancouver. _ pe cent, raising it to $81 making it that UBC and SFU students pay an average much less affordable for students like me to of $25 per month for a U-Pass, as opposed to _get to school. This extra $56 dollars a month the $73 per month all others pay stipulating makes a difference,” VCC student Nimmi Takkar said at the rally. “We’re forced to pay three times as much to ride the same transit system.” According to a survey conducted on behalf of the group by McAllister Opinion all Metro Vancouver students.” The group’s last official correspondence with TransLink in May 2007 offered schools such as Douglas, Emily Carr and VCC a $34 per month bus pass. The offer quickly expired and fell “We’re forced to pay three times as much to ride the = short of same transit system.” —VCC student Nimmi Takkar Research, 90 per cent of the 1,734 students surveyed said they want to see a $25 universal bus pass, and 96 per cent said that the U-Pass should be available to all students at the same price. “There’s an overwhelming consensus among students that it’s time for the government and TransLink to stop offloading their Olympic debts and overspending onto students,” said Priscilla Wolf, DSU external relations coordinator. “We want Premier Campbell to keep his promise of expanding the U-Pass program to furthering the cause of acquiring a universal pass. “We stand here today hopeful that we will be able to soon congratulate the Premier and the B.C. government for announcing the details of a $25 per month Metro Vancouver U-Pass,” Wolf stated. “We’re also sending a clear message to the Premier and TransLink that students will wait no longer.” For more information and campaign videos visit Onepassnow.ca. By John Morrison Ill, News Editor he Canada Line, a new rapid transit line servicing Vancouver, Richmond, and the Vancouver International Airport opened on August 17 with a mix of praise and complaints. While many commuters, especially travelers, have praised Commuters, residents have mixed feelings about Canada Line There hasn’t been anything that we can’t deal with,” says Crombie. Other commuters have complained about inconvenient bus transfers and the cancellation of certain routes that are now considered redundant with the introduction of the Canada line. Vancouver resident Clifford Chan told the Vancouver Sun that he “These are things that happen with a new system. There hasn’t been anything that we can’t deal with.” —Steve Crombie, InTransit the convenience it provides, some are not impressed. Some residents living near the 19 kilometres of track have complained about the noise it produces. Leslie DeSchutter, who resides near the Langara- 49" Street Station, says the station’s exhaust fans have disrupted his property’s liveability, reports the Vancouver Courier. “They aimed the exhaust fans directly at our house instead of towards Cambie,” DeSchutter complains, “My 93-year-old grandmother lives with us, I can’t even have a conversation with her 10 feet away in the backyard.” Steve Crombie, spokesperson for InTransit, the company contracted to build and maintain the automated transit system, says they are doing their best to solve the problem. InTransit is currently designing a shield to muffle the sound and expects to have it installed, “in the next couple of weeks.” “These are things that happen with a new system. expects difficulty getting to and from the station to his home. “T expected bus service right outside the exit on Davie Street. Instead, we had to walk three blocks uphill to Richards Street to connect to the Number 6 bus.” Not everyone is unhappy, however. The Other Press spoke to James MacKenzie who praised the Canada Line for cutting six minutes out of his daily commute. “Anything that enables me to hit the snooze button one more time gets a thumbs-up from me,” said James, who lives in Richmond and works near Waterfront. “The ride is really smooth and the stations are all very clean and organized.” The line, originally called the Richmond-Airport- Vancouver line, was completed 15 weeks ahead of its original schedule. It is expected to bear 100,000 boardings by 2010. -News Shorts By John Morrison Ill Turing receives posthumous apology Last week, The Other Press reported on the petition demanding a posthumous apology from the British government for the treatment of Alan Turing, a World War II-era codebreaker and founder of computing science who was prosecuted for being gay. Two years later, Turing took his own life. On September 10, Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for the way Turing was treated during the war. : Gay rights activist Peter Tatchell claims a similar apology is due for an estimated 100,000 British men who suffered similar treatment. “Singling out Turing just because he is famous is wrong,” he told BBC News. “Big Five” universities make grab for more research funding Canada’s top five universities — Toronto, Montreal, Alberta, British Columbia, and McGill —are calling for a greater share of research funding. The “big five” already receive over $250 million of the $2.5 billion given out annually by the federal government, according to Jacob Serebin of The Concordian. The presidents of the five major universities : — in Canada are calling for national debate on the future of post-secondary education in Canada, while representatives from other universities are speaking out against it. : The presidents of Western and Concordia both expressed disapproval of the idea of transferring further funding to the larger universities. “So, should we be looking at re-dividing the research pie among ‘elites’ and ‘the others?’ Instead of fighting over the crumbs, perhaps we need to bake a larger pie so that our universities thrive across this country,” said Judith Woodsworth, president of Concordia Univeristy, in a written statement.