University of Guelph students have apparently saved their heavily-subsidized student bus pass.
After extending voting for an extra three days on a referendum question asking students to approve the new deal the Central Student Association (CSA) had negotiated with Guelph Transit, the CSA and city were reporting Monday that the new deal has been approved.
"The unofficial results for the UPass Fee Increase Referendum: - quorum achieved, question passed," said a notice on the CSA web site, adding that the votes still had to be ratified.
Earlier in the day the results of the vote were reportedly posted on the CSA web site but later removed. The U of G Graduate Students Association reported that 76 percent of its members that voted did so in favour of the new deal.
Originally not enough students voted on the referendum question during CSA elections, which asked students if they approved of a new five-year contract that would see the heavily-subsidized bus pass increase a total of $50. Students currently pay $100 per semester, roughly one-third the cost of a regular bus pass.
Only 2,900 of 16,000 eligible students initially voted on the referendum. That wasn't enough to make quorum and the CSA scrambled to find a way to get one reached.
While its own rules prevented them from holding a second vote on the same question for a year, the election bylaws did allow for extending the voting period, which is what they did.
Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie, speaking at a committee meeting Monday where it was announced that a new deal had been reached, said the CSA needs to do a better job in the future of getting the message out about how important such referendum questions are.
