Thank you for participating in the UPASS survey – the response rate has been very good – we are at over 32% already.
About 90% of respondents are in favor of a fully subsidized UPASS.
The main concerns voiced are as follows:
– Concerns about where the funds will come from to pay for this
– Concerns about what the costs of the program will be
– Concerns that an increase in UPASS subsidy would cause a parking rate increase
– Concerns that an increase in UPASS would be instead of a raise or other compensation
– Assertion that UW is not paying market rate for Salaries (
– Concerns about affordability of living in seattle
– Concerns about a subsidized UPASS taking away funding from teaching, research, or other UW missions/goals
– Concerns about cross subsidies to other staff groups (we’ve been assured this wont happen)
– Voiced interest in more subsidized, but not free UPASS
The UPASS program is a “pay by use” program, meaning the UW only pays for trips that are actually taken. The program pays for every swipe of your UPASS/husky card on transit.
If a fully subsidized UPASS were rolled out tomorrow, and no new users took advantage of it, the program costs would not radically change. i.e. there is no penalty to the UW for providing
the pass if it is not utilized.
The classified staff are not a single union. There are around 10 separate bargaining units at the UW.
Not all Classified staff have received a fully subsidized UPASS but more than half of UW employees have it as of July 1st.
Professional Staff funding. Mechanisms for raises and benefit changes, not to mention how they are actually funded, are very complicated.
Thank you for your comments – we’ve de-identified them and offer them to you to see what your coworkers are thinking.
Link to all comments is here: (as of 8/22/2019 @ 11:30am) https://www.washington.edu/pso/2019/08/22/comments-from-2019-upass-survey/
-The PSO Board