Next year University of Denver students may find transportation around Denver metro much easier with new regional RTD passes.
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance Neil Krauss, spoke to the AUSA senate last Tuesday about the possible upgrade in the current bus passes. This new pass will allow DU students to ride to Boulder, Denver International Airport, and several other places that are not included in the current passes. The idea was introduced because DU Law students also want this regional pass. In order to make this pass possible for them, RTD wanted to upgrade all of the undergraduate passes, as well. The upgrade will probably cost from $1.50 to $2 per student each quarter. A resolution to increase in bus pass fees was already passed by the senate several weeks ago.
“I just wanted to let students know what was going on with this situation,” Krauss said.
The proposal has yet to go to vote by the law students, but whether they approve it or not, the undergrads will likely see an upgrade. This new pass will be effective beginning next fall.
Jens Tobiasson also attended the meeting on behalf of the Student Bar Association. He wanted to open the lines of communication between law students and the undergraduate students.
“I know there have been concerns and competing interests on both sides and I would like to see us working together on these issues,” Tobiasson said.
Tobiasson wanted to let the Senate know that law student have concerns about the possibility of undergraduate students coming into their limited space and using their resources, such as computers.
“We moved from a much larger campus in Park Hill and are still adjusting to the smaller space and fewer resources,” Tobiasson said.
President Chris Adams informed Senate members of several matters that were addressed in the previous week’s Board of Trustees meeting. The Board approved the purchase of a new apartment building that is located at University and Buchtel and will become part of student housing next year. They also approved a new lacrosse stadium to be built over the current lacrosse field. The money to fund this building came from Laura Barton, who donated a 2.5 million dollar gift for the building. It will be named in her husband’s name, Pete Barton. Michael and Jan Quinn also pledged 250,000 and Trygve Myhren pledged 50,000 toward the stadium. Another tuition hike was approved by the board, also. Next year’s tuition will be just under $26,000, nearly $1000 more than this. This is nearly a 7 percent increase.
The board did not approve changes to the Senate constitution that were made earlier this month. Adams and several other senate members will be considering the suggestions on ways to improve the constitution.
