COUVER (CUP)—Greater Vancouver secondary students are now being told they will have to wait until 2008 to ive discounted bus passes as negotiations expansion of the U-Pass program remain n impasse. Many of the same problems seen in 6—common pricing and administrative liness—continue to contribute to the ate, officials say. ‘All the student societies returned saying re not ready, or ‘it’s too expensive,” said eme Masterton, manager of transit plan- b> at TransLink. Last fall, TransLink came to the U-Pass PHOTO BY ANGEL DESJARLAIS Coalition—a group of students responsible for administering the bus pass—and offered them a common price of $34 a month. It was immediately rejected because the students wanted a rate similar to what the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University were paying. At UBC and SFU, the only two schools in the region to have the U-Pass, students pay $22.50 and $24.50 a month respectively. The cost is included in student fees, and all stu- dents are required to pay, regardless of whether or not they actually use transit. In return, students have unlimited access to tran- sit in the region. A monthly transit pass regu- ancouver U-Pass Expansion a o-Go until 2008 dent groups reject $34-a~month price, hold out for deal similar to UBC, SFU Eric Szeto, CUP Western Bureau Chief larly costs between $69 and $130. Up to 70,000 post secondary students stand to gain from the expansion to seven community colleges. With the exception of Langara College, the schools—Capilano College, Douglas College, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Kwantlen University College, Native Education Centre, and Vancouver Community College—have indicated that they would not be ready to implement the program this September. “The student societies have probably missed the opportunity,’ Masterton said. “It’s only going to get more expensive. They’re focused on a common low price, and just simply they just don’t want to see any price offered.” Christina Clews, a chairperson on Vancouver Community College (VCC) stu- dent union, has said that TransLink’s unwill- ingness to compromise has frustrated the coalition. “Tt’s been quite an uphill battle,” Clews said. “They’ve been fickle about what they’ve offered us before and then they’ve gone back and they changed their minds.” Clew claims that TransLink came to the coalition last year with a common price of $30 but came back soon after with an offer of $34. “Tf [TransLink] were prioritizing students’ needs then we would have already been at a consensus and had the implementation of this.” Glen Leicester, TransLink vice president of transit planning, maintained TransLink’s desire to expand the U-Pass to community colleges— but only if it remained revenue-neutral. Another suggestion being thrown around is for UBC and SFU to accept a rate increase to offset costs for TransLink. The UBC student society said it is going to wait until its contract runs out in 2008 before it reassesses. “You couldn’t sell [the rate increase] as necessary,” said Ian Patillo, a vice-president at the society. Patillo was critical of the continued dead- lock and felt that much of the problems stemmed from disorganization on all fronts. “T don’t think it’s going anywhere in the next six months,” he said. “TransLink isn’t compromising in their price neutrality. The colleges are just too dogmatic about the phi- losophy of the same price and UBC is too privileged with its own price.” Before the U-Pass, transit ridership at UBC hovered around 20 per cent or 19,000 people per day. With the U-Pass, transit rider- ship jumped 50 per cent—47,000 people ride a day—and has made UBC the second-largest transit hub in the Lower Mainland. The introduction of a U-Pass to the seven community colleges isn’t expected to have such a sharp increase in transit numbers because many of the students already take public transit, said Leicester, who anticipates a 10 to 15 per cent increase. According to a 2005 study by TransLink, 39 per cent of students in the seven commu- nity colleges already use public transit. VCC and the Native Education Centre had the highest ridership at 65 per cent while Kwantlen College had the lowest at 16 per cent ollege Nicole Burton, OP News Editor prd-winning biographer Rosemary Sullivan be speaking about her writing career at glas College on February 20. Sullivan, born in Montreal and a graduate cGill University, is also recognized in ada as an acclaimed poet and anthologist. is most noted for her 1995 biography dow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen perCollins, 1998) which won the erhor General’s Award for Non-Fiction; the national best-seller The Red Shoes: garet Atwood Starting Out (HarperCollins, 8). Her other achievements include the adian Author’s Association Literary Award Non-Fiction, the University of British bia’s Medal for Canadian Biography, newseditor@gmaili.com Acclaimed Author to speak at Douglas and the City of Toronto Book Award. Sullivan currently teaches at the University of Toronto where she holds a Canadian Research Chair and is the director of the Masters in Creative Writing program. As part of the Literature Alive series, her talk will be open to the public and will be free admission. The presentation starts at 7 pm in Room 1808 at the New Westminster Campus (700 Royal Avenue, New Westminster, one block from the New West SkyTrain Station). For further information, students and community members can contact the Faculty of Language, Literature and Performing Arts of Douglas College at 604.527.5465.