By: Sydney Umstead, News Editor
NFTA CRAM metro passes will no longer be offered to all students at Canisius this year following changes in NFTA policy that makes Canisius’s present metro pass policy more expensive.
In an article about the Undergraduate Student Association (USA) meeting, The Griffin reported that Jason Francey, director of the Student Engagement and Leadership Development (SELD), had stated he was “blindsided” by this change.
Previously, the metro passes needed to be applied for by a monthly deadline, and students could do so by filling out a form with their Canisius account. However, in Oct., students at Canisius received an email that there would be changes to the metro pass program moving forward. As of Nov. 2023, the pass picked up from the SELD office was the pass kept for the remainder of the semester. Moving forward, passes will now be available to borrow upon request in the SELD office on a need-based basis; passes must be returned to the SELD office 24 hours after having been checked out. Students can reload their previous cards; however, this will come out of their own pockets.
Yearlong passes will also be available for students who can prove a need for a pass, but these will not be available to all students by default.
USA Sophomore Senator Analee DeGlopper stated that the price that the school pays for the metro pass has “increased quite a bit.” This has happened “very recently,” DeGlopper noted.
NFTA also got rid of day passes to use the metro system. This could pose a difficulty for students who want to use the metro system to attend a Canisius sports event or engage in an activity involving C-block, Canisius’s club that encourages attendance at games.
The NFTA metro site states under its CRAM pass program information that “The transit pass program provides all students of participating* colleges unlimited access to the Metro Bus and Rail system, seven days a week at a significantly discounted rate.”