Due to the inefficiency of bus stickers, Student Association President Emily Nassir is looking to replace them with a one-step ID card based alternative.
Students who pay their activities fee can get a bus sticker from the box office in Marano Campus Center, which they then show to the bus drivers to get free fare on the Centro services to downtown Oswego and Syracuse.
SA would like to swap this program of bus stickers in for a simpler program that takes more of the work out of the student’s hands. One of the reasons a change is being considered is that many students are unaware of the sticker requirement and therefore cannot always use the bus services when they plan to.
“You only really know about this rule once you get on the bus and they tell you,” Nassir said.
Nassir said that while SA did post signs around Marano Campus Center about the stickers, she still sees people attempt to take the bus without one.
Nassir said the bus drivers also find the stickers to be inefficient, requiring them to check every student’s ID when they board the bus, slowing down their route.
Every undergraduate student on the Oswego State campus pays the activities fee and therefore they are all able to receive the free fare on the busses, according to Nassir.
“If we’re showing our IDs, we shouldn’t need the bus sticker because we’re already paying for the bus with our student bills,” said Ifedolapo Olalekan, an Oswego State freshman.
Oswego State junior Kimberly McDonald agrees with the potential change and said students might not always know about the need for a sticker but still need to take the bus.
“A lot of times when kids get on the bus, drivers will say they needed to get a sticker and the students wouldn’t know, especially if they have a car and just need to take the bus that time,” McDonald said.
The proposed replacement for the stickers would have student IDs work with the preexisting payment systems in the busses to check if the IDs are electronically marked as having paid the activities fee.
The success of this change relies on the preexisting student IDs being able to work with the Centro busses current systems.
Nassir said the technology of the ID card has to comply with the technology of the bus. She said Auxiliary Services is currently working to produce a mock-up student card without any information on it about real students to test the system.
“If it were to work, it would take effect next year,” Nassir said.
