With the academic term coming to a close in two weeks, the next UBC students to replace their UPass with Compass Cards will be those who are enrolled in the summer semester.
Jude Crasta, associate VP external, said that students enrolled in the summer semester should be receiving their Compass Cards just before the beginning of classes. However, Crasta did not release a specific date as to when this will be happening as the AMS is still in the process of finalizing the details.
“We are working through the Compass distribution process and in the next step, UBC’s summer term students will be receiving their Compass Cards," said Crasta. "We’ll [have] the dates finalized with Translink and with the university for distribution sometime soon."
After the summer, the next and final distribution phase will effectively mark the discontinuation of the U-Pass as almost all students transition to the Compass Card. The first distribution phase took place back in January, when the 850 students from UBC's various affiliated colleges became the first group of students to receive Compass Cards.
According to Crasta, neither the AMS nor TransLink received any reports of problems from students regarding the usage of Compass Cards during the last distribution phase.
“We’ve seen the Compass system [work] perfectly as we had expected it to and the students who have their Compass Cards are, as far as we have been informed, pretty satisfied with their travel,” said Crasta.
Crasta said that he does not anticipate any major problems for transitioning to the Compass Card during the final distribution phase.
“I’m pretty confident that if any issues arise, there shouldn’t be any problems for us to handle them when they come along,” said Crasta.
According to Crasta, the Compass Card system should be in full implementation by September, in time for students who begin the new academic term. Still, he also said that this schedule is only tentative and not certain.
“At any time, depending on if any issues arise, the schedule could change, but as far as we are planning right now, that’s the process,” said Crasta.