[1638] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
[Mit-talk] RE: Mandatory T passes?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (grace)
Fri Oct 21 16:36:04 2005
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 14:50:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: grace <gkenney@MIT.EDU>
To: Diandra Lucia <dmariel@MIT.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <KPEAICLMPLHHFJDLCBAEEEOJCAAA.dmariel@mit.edu>
cc: ec-discuss@MIT.EDU
cc: mit-talk@MIT.EDU
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@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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