Students opposed the idea of Northwestern adopting the Chicago Transit Authority’s U-Pass program by wide margins, Associated Student Government’s Student Services committee announced Wednesday night.
The U-Pass program allows students at participating universities unlimited use of CTA trains and buses after paying a fee of $45 per quarter, or about $135 a year. ASG’s online poll, which was not scientific, showed 72 percent of voting students opposed adopting the program, said Rainbow Alliance Sen. John Hughes, who designed the poll and prepared the committee’s report on the findings.
More than 2,000 students responded to the poll taken in January — representing about one-fourth of the undergraduate population. On average participating students estimated they spent about $30 on the CTA per quarter — $15 less than the current cost of U-Pass.
“Clearly, from an objective standpoint, CTA transportation (through U-Pass) is not worth the cost to the average student,” said Hughes, a Weinberg junior and former Daily Forum editor who serves as a board member for Students Publishing Co., which oversees The Daily.
The Law School and the Medill School of Journalism’s graduate program already subscribe to U-Pass, but university administrators have long been skeptical of its usefulness to undergraduates.
“I think (the poll) confirms the impressions some of us had in talking with students over the years,” said William Banis, NU’s vice president for student affairs. He said one of the problems with U-Pass is that it requires all students at participating institutions to pay for the service.
“It’s clear this wouldn’t benefit all of our students,” Banis said.
ASG approved the poll Nov. 12 to provide an objective measure of student interest in the program.
“I thought it was something we should at least look into,” said Foster-Walker Complex Sen. Eva Byerley, who co-sponsored the bill authorizing the poll.
Hughes acknowledged some aspects of the poll were flawed but said that if anything, the poll was biased in favor of U-Pass. Because respondents were self-selected, rather than randomly chosen, the poll likely drew a disproportionate response from people who feel strongly about the issue, he said.
In addition, Hughes said some respondents tried to skew results by entering unrealistically high estimates of how much they spent on the CTA. One respondent claimed to spend more than $80,000 in a single quarter. Poll organizers reset such outlying estimates to $225, the cost of three 30-day CTA passes. Even so, Hughes said, the $30 average in the committee report is probably an overestimate.
The findings come as no surprise to Byerley, a Medill sophomore.
“That’s pretty much what I figured it would say,” she said. “Not everyone is going to have to use the El that often.”
The poll’s results are a disappointment to some U-Pass supporters, including the citizens group Evanston’s Transportation Future. The group promotes public transit use and has long pushed for NU to adopt the program.
Rick Martin, one of the group’s organizers, argued that students would use the CTA more if NU joined the U-Pass program, because the unlimited rides would encourage students to take more short trips around Evanston on the system.
Hughes said he doubted the adoption of U-Pass would change students’ riding habits, because using the CTA already is relatively inexpensive.
“People’s use of CTA is probably not that price sensitive,” Hughes said.
Weinberg senior Matt McCormick, co-facilitator of Students for Ecological and Environmental Development, said his group will examine the poll’s results and work to address students’ concerns about the program.
“In general, we’ll continue to support mass transit,” McCormick said.
