Last week’s editorial, “calculating U-Pass costs” garnered five Letters to the Editor. These five letters come from involved students. The UTMSU president, Vickita Bhatt claims if the U-Pass referendum fails the U-Pass will be in jeopardy and she attempts to dispel “myths” about the U-Pass campaign. A number of club executives submitted a joint letter of endorsement, outlining reasons they think you should vote yes. Then we have letters from James Boutilier, Peter Buczkowski and Mariana Comito who have roles within clubs and societies that question the aggressive campaigning tactics and lack of facts presented to the student body. Last week I stated I was disappointed in the lack of transparency with this “I heart U-Pass” campaign even though I do support the U-Pass as a driver.
Since my editorial was published, the UTMSU has revised their notice and preamble to include the vital information that I thought was missing from their campaign. The preamble now states that the cost of the eight month pass is proposed to increase from $99.14 to $130 beginning September 2011. With this information clearly presented on the preamble when you arrive at polling stations I hope you make an informed vote and consider both the pros and cons that the five students who wrote in have discussed.
As this is the last issue of The Medium for this term, I wanted to wish you all good luck on your final exams and thank you for continuing to support The Medium. We have made some very important changes to our operations and hope to continue to provide you with informative stories and engaging topics of discussion. The opinion section is my favourite section of The Medium and I always look forward to reading what other students have to say or responses to questions that I pose.
I encourage anyone who has something to say to write letters when The Medium comes out again in the new year and until then you can check our website for updated articles at themedium.ca and follow us on twitter @TheMediumUTM.
Yours,
Saaliha Malik
