Column: MU student fees aren't Columbia's 'back-up plan'
Published Nov. 20, 2011
Hey RHA, I know you do a lot of good on campus and the government is a force, but can you, for the love of all things good, stop with the snapping?
On Tuesday night, I attended the bi-annual joint student government session as a representative of Four Front. The other governments in attendance were RHA, MSA, GPC and PHA.
I'm sure there is an article in this issue about the events of the meeting, but this column (see, notice I used two different words. This space has always been used for an opinion column. That means how I see things on campus. Don't be rude and leave comments complaining that The Maneater “continues to print” my writing)...
Sorry, back on track.
I want to use my 600 or so words to discuss a topic brought up at the joint session: transportation fees.
When I studied at the University of California – Berkeley in 2009, as part of my student fees, I paid for transportation. This $60 fee went to the AC Transit bus system and allowed me to take the bus for free.
In the Bay Area, public transportation truly reaches its potential, at least in the American context. Everyone rides the bus and the routes are all over the region. I could even take the bus from Berkeley to San Francisco, and for free.
I returned from this transportation utopia and as a senator, decided to get involved with the transportation standing committee. I brought up to the committee increasing student fees to help subsidize Columbia Transit and eventually expand the service to Jefferson City and was shot down.
When I write, “shot down,” it's not an understatement. No one discussed it, and we all moved on to bike issues. The rest of the semester, I dealt with an issue I really didn't care about.
It also struck me how little most of these committees care about what an average student has to say.
Moving on, now the City of Columbia is going bankrupt and Mayor Bob McDavid wants the university to bail the transportation system out of bankruptcy.
Right now would be a perfect time to ask Mayor McDavid, how did Columbia Transit fall into shambles without you noticing?
If the city can't manage the money it already has, how can the students trust it to manage our proposed new stream of revenue?
How does he propose we alone (Stephens College and Columbia College have refused to help) save the transit system? He wants the student parking and transportation fee to increase from $23.85 to $80.00.
LOL.
As you may have been able to take away from the first third of this column, I am a huge proponent of public transportation. What I'm not a huge proponent of is a city government taking advantage of students because it thinks it can.
You see, if Mayor McDavid had wanted to work with the students (instead of threatening out of fear) before the sudden financial decline in the transportation system, this column space would have been the first to back it.
But he didn't.
Now, the mayor is trying to put up some sort of ultimatum: Either we pay for the city's transportation or they are forced to cut $1 million from that budget and all services are rendered useless.
I like to think that despite the extreme apathy on this campus, we all want to help the common good. Obviously, for me, creating a level playing field through reliable public transportation is an aspect of that common good.
However, to what extent are the students going to act as the crutch for the accountancy failings of a much larger city?
10:45 p.m., Nov. 27, 2011
john said:
The answer to the question you'd like to ask the mayor is simple, the money that the city spent went towards the off campus bus routes that serve The Lodges, Gateway, and all the other big housing complexes. The previous council, a government from over five years ago, passed agreements with those housing complexes. But the money the complexes were paying for the exclusive service was entirely inadequate. Within three years of operating an even further expanded off campus system, the system went broke. Meanwhile, the routes the city operates for the remainder of the city, for the everyday folk, have seen more and more cutbacks and neglect in recent years. Buses run quite frequently for students, yet every 40 mins at best on city routes, and 80 mins at worst. Of course, buses don't run past 6:30 Mon thru Wed, past 9:30 Thursday and Friday, and past 7 on Saturday. Oh, and don't expect a bus on Sunday. And despite heavy calls for expanded service on the city routes, more and more attention goes towards the student routes. $1 million in cuts would cut service drastically on both systems, yet hurt the city routes more than they've already been. Students have gotten a fee ride at the expense of those who must make use of a far inferior service, and now because the systems gone broke catering to them, the students refuse to pay their fare share? This city serves the students, and I wouldn't have it any other way. But as a city resident since I was three, I'd hope for a little more respect, and at least a little in return for the sacrifices we as a city have made for them.