Home » Opinion » Letters to the Editor » Letter: Referendum does not benefit all

Letter: Referendum does not benefit all

To the Editor:

Adding an additional 48 or so dollars to tuition/student fees does not seem to be a big issue, but for some people like myself who live off-campus and drive to school every day it is a complete and total waste of money — I could be using this money to fill up my car.

There is absolutely no need for me to posses a bus pass currently, and increasing this charge makes it even more absurd — it’s ridiculous.

Why can there not be an opt out clause in registration, like the one for Western’s health insurance? Why should I have to pay even more money for something that is totally useless to me? I don’t think that it is fair to those who do not take the bus to have to help finance such a program.

Surely, London Transit Commission does not need every student at Western to pay 48 extra dollars to run this late night bus and to help finance the full year service that only a minority of students will actually ever use.

Maybe instead of constructing their new warehouse on Wonderland Road and begging for taxpayer dollars, the LTC should have used their “limited” budget to properly allocate buses.

They have spend millions on this facility, and now they agree to run a new bus route, all the while ripping off the city of London and sucking Western students into financing their increasing debt.

If some would like to support a late-night service and year-round pass for their convenience, that’s fine, but why should people pay who do not benefit from such a program?

An opt out program is necessary. Maybe I could use the $48 to donate to charity? Oh, never mind, Western will tell us who to donate it to.

­— Logan Thomas Burnett

Social Science I

Follow the Gazette on Facebook and Twitter.