The HSR has wrongfully collected over $1,000,000 from students since April of this year! Shame on the McMaster Students Union (MSU) for taking no action!

This is an issue that no students seem to be talking about and I am not sure why. At this point in time, students of McMaster are paying for a FREE service in Hamilton. Last year, each McMaster student paid a fee of $216.73 (roughly $18/month) for a 1-year HSR transit pass. This pass is valid September 1st, 2019 through August 31st, 2020.

As of March 19th, all public ridership of the HSR was made free in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This directly raises the question:

Why are students still paying for the HSR?

This also calls to question the consideration of the contract signed between the MSU (McMaster Student's Union) and the HSR. Consideration is a part of contract law that states in order for a contract to be valid, both parties MUST receive a benefit from the contract.

As of the 2018-2019 academic year - the most recently released statistics - McMaster had a student body of 33,147 attendees. This means that even if we forego the March payments, which is still over 1/3 of a month, the HSR has wrongfully collected over $1,193,292 from students thus far!

As this COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate the world, there seems to be no sign of change on the horizon. It is time for students to do something about this! Shame on the MSU for not taking any action!

I hope to bring some awareness and conversation to this issue. If I have missed something, please kindly let me know. I hope you are staying well!

If you're curious about the details:

The revenue discussion:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/hsr-mohawk-transit-agreement-1.5600292

McMaster statistics 2018/2019:
https://www.mcmaster.ca/vpacademic/documents/FactBook2018-2019.pdf