Rachel Brown, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, knows what the real value of a UPASS is.

“Five bucks,” Brown said, “I sold mine to a graduate student for five dollars.”

Brown keeps a car on campus and has no reason to take the public buses. But all Marquette students, even those who do not use the UPASS, are forced to fork over $41 per semester to pay for it. Over her four-year Marquette career, this will amount to $328 Brown must pay for a service she says she has never used

Even if Brown sold her U-PASS every semester for $5, that would be a $36 loss per semester. She would only receive $40 over her four years at Marquette. Since she pays $328 for the U-PASS as a part of her tuition, Brown would, in effect, be losing $278 due to Marquette’s mandatory program.

ALL OR NOTHING PROGRAM

Milwaukee County Transit System only allows a university to join the U-PASS program if the school promises to make every undergraduate student buy in.

Brock Banks, Marquette University Student Government President, sees the mandatory nature of the program as its main fault, but correctly contends that this is not Marquette’s prerogative.

“With the county making it an all or nothing program, obviously there are challenges,” Banks said.

This reality has been the biggest controversy surrounding the possible addition of Marquette’s graduate population to the program.

According to the September 5, 2006 Graduate School Organization Committee meeting minutes, Craig Pierce, the assistant Dean of the graduate School and director of Graduate Admissions, raised the issue of extending the U-PASS program to the graduate students at Marquette. He said that 10 years earlier this issue was brought before the students but they did not come to a clear consensus. The problem was the Milwaukee Transit Authority did not allow schools to make the program optional for students. Thus, in order to offer the program to graduate students, there would have to be a student fee instituted in the same fashion as for the undergraduate U-PASS. Opposition to the levying of a fee led to the program’s dismissal as a viable option.

STUDENTS PAY

While the U-PASS appears as an itemized fee on tuition statements, Marquette’s website claims that the U-PASS program has given “the opportunity for free transportation across all of Milwaukee.” Joey Lehmann, a senior in the College of Business, who has accepted a position with the Milwaukee branch of the accounting firm Price Waterhouse Cooper and serves on the Executive Board of Beta Alpha Psi, Marquette’s “honorary organization for financial students and professionals,” claims that this just is not the case.

“Because the expense is broken out as a specific line item, a user, relying on that statement, cannot reasonably interpret the U-PASS to be ‘free,’” Lehmann said.

While he sees some rationale for the U-PASS program, Banks was clear, though, that Marquette’s website should not be claiming the program is free. When told this, Banks was clearly concerned.

“Do they really?” he asked. “I’ll send them an e-mail.”

And to those who claim it is a free service?

“Obviously I don’t think that’s a fair claim. That’s not a fair statement. All students are paying for it,” Banks said.

ABUSE AND MISUSE

One December 2007 graduate of Marquette University, who requested that her name be withheld for fear of getting “in trouble,” said that the U-PASS has been a savior for her at her first real job outside of college.

“For me, it’s a huge moneysaver,” she said. “I have [my undergraduate boyfriend’s U-PASS] and I literally use it everyday. I work in the Third Ward, where parking prices are ridiculous. It would cost me over $125 a month to park in a structure. With the U-PASS, I can ride the bus for free and save money on gas. I love that little pink card… The only reason I can get away with using a U-PASS is because I still have my [MU]ID.”

She also said that she sent out an e-mail to her friends that were still undergraduates at Marquette in an attempt to get a few U-PASS for her co-workers who were never affiliated with Marquette. “One or two of my friends said they’d be willing to give their U-PASSes up,” she said.

On Facebook’s Marketplace Application, a U-PASS will fetch more than Brown received when she sold hers to the graduate student. As of Monday morning, there was at least one offering of $25 for any student’s U-PASS. A quick search of craigslist.com also showed that non-Marquette students were also willing to pay for the U-PASS.

Controversy is not new to the U-PASS. In 1995, according to a report in the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Editor in Chief of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Times, wrote an article encouraging UWM students to sell their U-PASS by using free advertising in the paper. The paper then received a letter from that school’s administration informing him of sanctions placed on the paper. The writer, who admitted to selling his U-PASS, was placed on non-academic probation for two semesters and fined $156.

According to Banks, Marquette does not seem likely to pursue similar actions against students.

“I haven’t heard anything like that,” Banks said.

However, when contacted, Mark McCarthy, Assistant Vice President and Dean of Student Development, said in an e-mail Tuesday that an investigation would not be out of the question.

“It is possible that Marquette would investigate and pursue [disciplinary] action via the student conduct system,” McCarthy said. “[But] I am not aware of any such actions by a Marquette student to date.”

“NOT A PERFECT PROGRAM”

Banks does, however, realize the reasons for Marquette’s implementation of the program.

“There are a lot of students on campus who don’t have access to a car. If they need to do grocery shopping, run errands, if they’re trying to participate in community service activities…there would be a demand for having a U-PASS… to connect students better to the city itself, so that you’re not just confined to campus, and have the ability to explore the city,” Banks said.

Banks, though, says the program has definite flaws.

“The program itself, yeah, is certainly a transfer of money. Obviously my $41 I pay to it, I mean I don’t even use my U-PASS, is being used for, one of these students using it on a daily basis. Clearly, [a transfer of money] is what [the program] is,” Banks said. “It’s not a perfect program, if it was perfect, you know, I would have the option to buy into it, especially someone like me- I’ve got a car. I didn’t even pick my U-PASS up. If I had the option, I personally wouldn’t buy into the program.”

But, for now, Banks says, there is no movement within MUSG to “specifically get rid of [the U-PASS] program… It’s through [the Business and Government] committee that a piece of legislation could be written to say, ‘yes, we want to be in this program,’ or, ‘no, we don’t want to be in this program.’”

FIRST CRITICS

Joseph Stopulos, senior in the College of Business, who ran against Banks in last year’s MUSG Presidential election, does not think that enough is getting done. A major part of Stopulos’ platform last year emphasized the need to change the U-PASS system as it is. In an interview Monday, Stopulos spoke with The Warrior.

“You look at the number of upperclassmen who use [the U-PASS] and it’s miniscule- there’s no one… It’s the classic argument of why should we have to pay for [younger students] to use it?”

“I don’t know a senior who uses the bus, or a junior,” Stopulos said. “Freshman and sophomore year I used the bus, occasionally, just ‘cause I was lazy.”

So for at least for the foreseeable future, students like Rachel Brown will continue to be forced into the mandatory program. But Banks recognizes that the U-PASS program may become a bigger issue in the future.

“Keep in mind that we’re coming up on an [MUSG] election,” Banks said. “There’ll be new senators, there’ll be a new president and vice president. So I don’t anticipate a lot of work will be done on [the U-PASS] issue until post-election.”

But for students like Rachel Brown, any action will be years late and $328 short.

The Warrior sent a reporter and a photographer to the Library on Monday night at 10 p. m. They found five random students studying and asked them the following question:

“If the U-PASS program were optional, would you pay the $328 over four years to have it?”

We also asked them for a visual thumbs up or thubs down. Here are their responses:

Nick Preston- Sophomore College of Arts and Science:

“No, judging on how much I use the U-PASS… I don’t think I use 328 bucks worth.”

Sean O’Connell- Senior College of Arts and Sciences:

“No… I used it freshman and sophomore year, since then I have a car up here.”

Haley Meier- Sophomore College of Biomedical Sciences

“Definitely not. It’s a waste of money. I only use the bus a couple of times a year.”

Sarah Misustin- Senior College of Biomedical Sciences

“Absolutely not, it’s a big waste of money.”

Greg Martin- Senior College of Business:

“I would not buy into it. I don’t utilize the bus that much.”

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