U-Pass scammers scammed
Students at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University are investing in public transit-by selling their discounted student U-Passes. The eight-month pass costs students around $20 per month, and can sell online at upwards of $300.
The Greater Vancouver transit authority TransLink has put a number of measures in place: U-Passes bear the student’s names and photo, and though passes can easily be replaced after they’re sold, the old cards are automatically cancelled. However, buyers get away with the scam because most bus drivers don’t check photos or ask users to scan their passes in the fare box. To further curb illegal sales, TransLink will be adding constables to buses, especially on major buses to UBC.
Authorities busted several students by posing as interested buyers on forums such as Craigslist and Buyandsell.com. Those caught using illegal passes can face a $346 fine, and students caught selling them can get a non-academic misconduct citation on their transcript.
UBC’s student society is worried that the fraud will jeopardize the U-Pass program, which has grown to serve 47,000 people since it was launched in 2003. However, administrators admit that their power to discourage illegal sales is limited.
Similar transit programs are in place at the University of Victoria, the University of Alberta, Dalhousie University and U of T’s Mississauga campus. The TTC has proposed its own U-Pass for downtown student, priced at $500 for 12 months, but debates over the no opt-out proposal mean St. George is unlikely to see such a pass for some time.
-Jane Bao
ROM reno redux
More than a year after its plan to build a 46-storey condo tower was shot down, the Royal Ontario Museum is again looking at ways to fill the space left empty by the mothballed McLaughlin Planetarium. Proposals are due to be heard by the museum board’s executive committee on May 17, according to the Globe and Mail. ROM Director and CEO William Thorsell notes in a recent press release that the Ontario agency would likely not announce any partnerships until late summer-and likely not before community consultation is taken “in an effort to find a proposal that creates a consensus on what should be done.”
Fierce opposition from the University and the ROM’s neighbours around the north end of Queen’s Park brought down the initial condo proposal in 2005, after the community voiced concerns over a lack of public say in the matter.
The tower was one of the options the Museum had looked into to provide a much-needed infusion of cash for the Renaissance ROM renovations, a program that includes the soon-to-be-opened Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.
-Kwok Wong
