[1631] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
[Mit-talk] RE: Mandatory T passes? (update)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jessica H Lowell)
Fri Oct 21 16:34:52 2005
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 15:19:33 -0400
From: Jessica H Lowell <jessiehl@mit.edu>
To: grace <gkenney@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.4.58L.0510211440480.1681@scrubbing-bubbles.mit.edu>
cc: Diandra Lucia <dmariel@mit.edu>
cc: ec-discuss@mit.edu
cc: mit-talk@mit.edu
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
So, an update...
I was just at an Institute Committee on Student Life meeting and took the
opportunity to bring this up. And, this preliminary proposal is apparently so
preliminary that nobody in the room who hadn't read today's Tech - which
included the Dean of Student Life - had heard about it before. In fact, they
weren't convinced that such an idea would be feasible. I would think that if
it had any chance of happening in the remotely near future, it would be
further
along than this. So, it looks like it's unlikely to happen.
This proposal was apparently generated as a course 11 student's
master's thesis,
or something like that. Wasn't that also where the idea that hit the
news last
year about shutting down Random and turning it into sorority housing
came from,
or am I remembering wrong?
- Jessie
Quoting grace <gkenney@MIT.EDU>:
>
> as the article says, they would continue paying the MBTA people the same
> amount of money that they already pay them for the subsidized T pass
> program, which currently runs at something like $20-odd per pass [i
> think]. however, to lower our bill to $10, they'd have to have some huge
> chunk of the student population [read, everyone] sign on. if they made
> it optional, i assume that the danger would be too many people not opting
> in, leaving MIT to cover the difference. and we all know how MIT feels
> about picking up the tab for student services these days.
>
> me, i'm not sure how i feel about it - on one hand, i use the T a great
> deal. i certainly spend more than $10 on T tokens every month. $10
> for a month's pass is a fantastic deal. it's also more immediately and
> frequently useful to me than any of the other mandatory expenses people
> have been mentioning. but on the other hand, i don't like the creeping
> growth of mandatory expenses - there are too damn many already.
>
> perhaps an opt-out thing would work? i bet almost no one except the
> people really financially need it would opt-out, either because they'd
> find it useful or because they're too damn lazy. everyone wins.
>
> [fucking typical that the first time any undergrad hears about this is in
> a tech article though.]
>
> -grace
>
> gibbering like hunter thompson on a revolutionary drug, dmariel@MIT.EDU said:
>
>> I loathe mandatory extra expenses, and I don't think most people are very
>> fond of them, either (especially students). That said, $10/month is such a
>> good deal that I suspect a decent amount of folks would _choose_ to buy
>> passes each month. Why do they feel the need to make this mandatory?
>> (Sure, some people don't get out much, but if someone wants to be a
>> reclusive tool, that's their choice to make.)
>>
>> - Diandra
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jessica H Lowell [mailto:jessiehl@MIT.EDU]
>> Sent: Friday, October 21, 2005 12:58 PM
>> To: mit-talk@mit.edu
>> Cc: ec-discuss@mit.edu
>> Subject: Mandatory T passes?
>>
>>
>> According to the front page of the Tech, there's a preliminary proposal for
>> requiring all MIT students and staff to pay $10/month in exchange for
>> universal
>> T passes. This was the first I'd heard of this, though apparently grad
>> students
>> have been talking about it for a while. What are people's opinions on this?
>>
>> - Jessie
>>
>>
>>
>
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