To Enrique Ponce, president of the Sheridan Student Union and its board of directors,

  Last week, the Sheridan Student Union held a referendum on the implementation of a universal transit pass, which would allow students to use Oakville, Brampton and Mississauga Transit for 197.15 dollars a term; a pass that is not optional. Today, we were informed that this passed with a total of 4,805 students (57% which voted yes, and 43% which voted no) voting out of a body of 19,260 eligible students. 

  We the students within this petition feel that the condition of needing only 15% of the student body to vote in order to make this decision binding was not proportional to the amount of eligible, full time students currently enrolled within Sheridan College who would be effected by this referendum, and that the percentage of votes needed should have been higher in order to give the student body proportional representation. Given the close vote of the referendum that occurred, however, we feel that the ability to opt out would be be a step in the right direction while allowing those who need the UPass to benefit from it.

  The students listed in this petition do not use transit enough to benefit from this pass, and will not use transit to benefit from this pass in the coming school year, we own our own vehicles and pay for parking, don't use transit at all, and would be losing significant amounts of money which cannot be moved over or kept to use at a later date.

  We therefore ask that the president and board of directors of the Sheridan Student Union grant students that are eligible for the U-Pass the ability to opt out of the U-Pass.


  Regards,
  Kaitlin Calbery