0
0
By Nita Gandhi / News Editor
ID issues (Allison Perez / Photo Editor)
By Nita Gandhi / News Editor
Some Riverside City College students are having problems using their student identification cards at Riverside Transit Agency bus stops with the go pass program.
RCC students can present their RCC ID cards at any bus stop and ride the bus anywhere it goes for free as long as they are currently registered students taking one unit or more and pay all fees for attending classes.
Some students who ride the bus are having problems using their ID.
When they present their card to the bus driver and swipe it, the card does not work and would have to pay the bus fair of $1.50.
“Every situation that you find is different,” said Johanna Vasquez, the administrative assistant to the dean of admissions and records.
There could be a number of reasons why the ID cards could not be working for students who ride the bus.
“For the most part you’re going to have occasional glitches, technically. It could be that the card is just like a credit card and the coding is no longer working because you put it down somewhere,” Vasquez said.
“It could be that the student is no longer enrolled in classes and so it stops working,” she said. “It could be that the fare box on the RTA bus has a problem. It could be a multitude of things why it would not work.”
Tyiesha Andrews rides the bus everyday to RCC and has not had any problems with her ID not working at the bus stop.
“I really like it because not only can I go to school but I can go to the mall whenever I want to or anywhere,” Andrews said. “I use it everyday and it works for me.”
There have been problems with the program in the past, but have always been addressed accordingly.
“When the program first started there was a little bit of glitches, just like everything that’s new,” Vasquez said. “But since then, I can not say that in the past year I think everything works as smoothly as possible for the amount of students that we issue IDs for.”
Currently, there have been two students that Vasquez recalls this semester who have had a problem with their new ID cards at the bus stops.
“It was more of an issue with the card itself,” Vasquez said. “It was not coded, so we had to replace that card.”
Vasquez said that if any student is having problems with their ID card to come into the Admissions and Records office and they can find out the problem with the card and fix it.
She went on to say that the office could find out if there is a problem with the card on the college’s end and if it is a problem with the Riverside Transit Agency the college can call the agency to fix the problem.
“The program itself works great,” Vasquez said. “A lot of students I know use it and we try to make as available as we can to be able to issue ID cards.”
Information on the RTA Go Pass is on the RCC website at http://www.rcc.edu/riverside/goPass.cfm.
