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Universal U‐PASS Advisory Board Preliminary Summer Meeting August 24, 2011 Minutes 1. Stephanie: ORCA 60 Day Tap update a. The physical card readers themselves have been confirmed for presence at Dawg Daze, but the staff from Metro has not been confirmed. b. There is potential for installing an ORCA Light Rail Station Reader in the Husky Card Office before the actual station opens on campus in a few years. i. Josh: Negotiations with transit agencies on this issue is continuing. ii. Melanie: Will cost be an issue? Has this been budgeted for? 1. Josh: Cost is not a limiting factor in getting the reader installed on campus. iii. Sean: Would the reader be installed behind the locking doors of the HuskyCard Office or on the same level in Odegaard? Installing it outside of the Office would allow for greater accessibility but also less security. 1. Josh: The Transit Agencies are concerned about security though there is a value in having it more publicly available iv. Conor: If students tap to activate their card, is that included in the amount of trips taken by UW students? 1. Josh: There are ways to exclude that data. If we are successful in getting a reader hard‐wired onto campus, the 24‐48 hour period for information to be send out to card readers will be cut down to 24 hours. c. If the ORCA card reader event becomes a large part of marketing for Dawg Daze and there’s a large amount of cards being activated in the fall then students will not need to tap again. i. Melanie: Not many graduate students attend Dawg Daze events. It might be more effective to get the message out during orientations for graduate schools and other group events. ii. Contact First Year Programs to find out if the schedule has already been printed. d. Bill: I thought of this question during the University Transportation Committee (UTC) meeting on Monday, August 22. Is it possible to activate cards that students have not already picked up while they are sitting in the HuskyCard Office? i. Josh: No, while the cards are sitting around they are not live HuskyCards in the UW database.
ii. Stephanie: When a student picks up a new Husky Card it is swiped, which activates it. Only once a card becomes live in the UW system are we able to send it to the ORCA system. e. Melanie: How do we communicate to bus operators that students may hop on just to tap their pass and get off, without riding? i. Stephanie: We plan on issuing a memo through Metro and transit agencies to bus drivers servicing the University area. ii. Melanie: we could utilize posters or sandwich boards to advertise the message at campus bus stops 1. Rene: Physical Plants has sandwich boards that Transportation Services could utilize. There is a permit process we would need to go through to use sandwich boards. f. Rene: What is the complaint component of this? What is the process for anyone with issues about this? Is there a formal hearing that people can go to? i. Josh: We will accept all comments, questions, concerns and complaints through the email
[email protected], the central Commuter Services intake address, that way we can track issues throughout. I foresee there being two types of concerns: 1. Operational concerns: This program isn’t working like you told me it’s going to, etc. a. These concerns will be taken care of right away. b. If there are trends, Transportation Services will ensure that the Advisory Board is aware of those. 2. Policy Concerns: The response will be to answer the query with factual information. If that is not satisfactory in resolving the concern, the Advisory Board is a place is where those concerns should be heard. a. Sean: Students will also go and complain to the HuskyCard Office 3. Stephanie: All emails should include the subject line “ORCA Triage” if it pertains to ORCA or “Universal” if it pertains to the universal U‐PASS. ii. Melanie: If we want a forum we should go ahead and plan if for the beginning of October. 1. Bill: I don’t think we would prepared by that time, later would be better. 2. Melanie: It would just be a forum for people to be heard. a. Bill and Melanie will communicate about the potential for an ASUW and GPSS hosted forum 2. Alicia and Stephanie: Communications plan a. Advertisements in The Daily’s Welcome Edition
b. Bulletins for resident advisers in training, materials provided through resource website c. Student newsletter mailing in place of stickers being mailed out d. Registrar email and blog e. Banner on Kane Hall f. Dawg Daze event during Student Activities Fair g. Posters in all buildings across campus h. Mail truck signs i. Emails to student groups i. RSOs – contacted Phil Hunt ii. GPSS + ASUW iii. Residence Halls via UWRA listserv iv. Greek Community – office of sorority and fraternity life v. Other groups: Commuter students, ASUW commissions, department emails j. Student presentations – will utilize only if deemed the most effective method of communication by group leaders. Otherwise Transportation Services plans on using the most effective and reliable means of communication already in place. k. Press release to The Daily about U‐PASS changes l. Posters and email updates as the 60‐day ORCA tap deadline approaches m. Stephanie: Appointees should note that any communications that talk about ORCA functionalities need to be review by the Transit Agency first and they require three business days for review. i. Transportation Services already has multiple communication templates that have been approved and is happy to provide that to ASUW and GPSS to utilize in their communications. n. Melanie: GPSS would like a representative to speak at the first GPSS Senate meeting. Melanie and Stephanie will follow up on this. 3. Celeste: population understanding – who is a part of “universal” a. Students who are not included i. Students who are not registered for any classes ii. Students who are at UWT or UWB 1. Students at other campuses are not a part of universal even if they are taking classes at Seattle iii. Students who do not pay tuition 1. Students taking classes exclusively through tuition‐ exemption 2. ACCESS program iv. Students who take exclusively foreign study classes v. Most programs that are exclusively self‐sustaining 1. All of the above groups constitute 96 percent of the total population that Transportation Services estimated total population 96% of the population we had estimated
b. Rene: Graduate students in fee‐based programs have had a variety of problems. We should pay extra attention to graduate students or students in fee‐based programs. i. Celeste: Most fee based programs pay SAF. We can address this in advance on an individual troubleshooting level. 1. Rene and Melanie will follow up on particulars and communicate specifics to Nate. c. Celeste: Study abroad students do not pay the SAF fee and are not included in universal i. Conor: This sounds odd to me. There are strict guidelines in RCW outlining exemptions for the SAF fee. ii. Rene: SAF exemptions are determined by Student Life. 1. Group consensus: in a future meeting have a presentation on SAF by an expert from Student Life. 4. Celeste: Transit contract negotiations a. Because of the student body’s dedicated to a Universal U‐PASS, Transportation Services has been able to have a fundamentally different conversation with Transit Agencies. Terms are much more favorable now than they ever have been in the past. b. Current negotiations have resulted in a two‐year price lock with most Transit Agencies with locks on trip‐counts with all Transit Agencies. This ensures a much greater stability for the program and helps Transportation Services to meet its commitment with students i. Contracts are not completely finalized yet but should be within the next week and at the latest by the end of August. A few key people are on vacation and coming back this next week. ii. Bill: Is there any way that not having the contract signed yet could affect the launch? 1. Celeste: No. 5. Group Exemptions a. Josh: The population at present is dealt with through the MOU. The Advisory Board does not have the power to exempt groups; the Advisory Board can make recommendations to exempt to ASUW and GPSS or we can revisit the MOU and attempt to give the Advisory Board that power. b. Josh: We need to work up a standard message that we can send to groups wanting exemptions saying that it will not be done in the short term but may be considered in the long term. i. Rene suggested the following simple message acknowledging receipt: “Thank you, we have received your information and we will get back to you.” We should make the judgment after at least one quarter. ii. Melanie: We can’t do any waivers right now, we don’t have any policy, it’s still too early.
iii. Bill: We need a pathway to create some specific language, since most of these will be coming to Transportation Services iv. Josh: We should draft something we can send out including (a) thank you for giving us this information and (b) we are not going to grant a waiver for fall quarter 1. Alicia will draft this message before the next meeting c. Conor: Last year a group through the School of Medicine [WHAM‐E, sp?] applied for exemption from the SAF, which was ultimately rejected. They were rejected on the reasoning, “You are paying the fees to be a part of the UW Community, you are a UW student so you are a part of that fee.” The RCW has very strict rules on what exemptions there can be. i. Rene: We should have someone from database and research come in to talk to us about the SAF fee. They could clarify the process for fee based programs and how they work. ii. Josh: What’s the reporting structure for the SAF board? 1. Rene: Through Student Life. Rene can look it up and send out information in an email. 6. Next preliminary meeting a. Alicia will send out a doodle poll i. Request by group: no 8 a.m. meetings ii. Meeting should occur in two weeks b. Not enough time to cover FAQs i. Will send out in email today, everyone is encouraged to send feedback
