September 19, 2019

Results of 2019 UPASS Subsidy Survey

In August the PSO conducted a Catalyst survey of all 10,000 professional staff asking if the PSO board should advocate for a fully subsidized UPASS. The response rate was a whopping 49% and of the 4932 responses received, more than 90% of them favored this advocacy.

Many excellent comments and suggestions were also received

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 diverting funding from teaching, research, or other UW missions/goals
– Concerns about cross subsidies to other staff groups
– 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. This demonstrates why it is important for UPASS users to understand the “tap on, tap off” system of light rail to avoid generating large trip costs the UPASS program must then bear.

The classified staff are not a single entity. 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 now.

Thank you for your comments – we have ve de-identified them and offer them as a sample of what your coworkers are thinking.
The comments page is here: (as of 8/22/2019 @ 11:30am)

https://www.washington.edu/pso/2019/08/22/comments-from-2019-upass-survey/

Thank you for participating in our survey

-The PSO Board