1. Teacher Transportation Trouble

2. Cindy Halifax moved from Windsor to Mississauga with her parents and her 15 year old brother Jason in May. They hired Al’s Moving Company and got the job done in only 2 days.

3. A couple of weeks later they were all settled in and Cindy managed to get a full time job as a waitress at a restaurant down the street.

4. Cindy is 22 years old and is quite accomplished. She completed her four year undergraduate degree and applied to three Bachelor of Education programs in Ontario.

5. One evening in February Cindy starts to prepare herself for her interview the following day with the University of Ontario (UOIT). She has never visited the university campus before and begins to plan out the route she will take to get there.

6. She checks the Greyhound Bus Schedule to figure out when she needs to leave and when she would arrive in Oshawa.Greyhound Bus Schedule

7. Unfortunately the bus would not be able to take her all of the way to campus, so she consults the Durham Transit website to find a local connecting bus.Durham Transit

8. After getting on the wrong bus, Cindy realizes she is running out of time so jumps into a taxi and gets a ride the rest of the way to school.taxi

9. She arrives on campus and finds her way over to the building where the interview is being held. She signs in, writes a case study, and finally has her interview.

10. Afterwards she is feeling happy and wants to celebrate, so she calls her friend Amanda who lives in Toronto. They decide to meet for drinks that evening so Cindy goes online to find a GO Bus that will take her into the city, where Amanda will pick her up.GO Bus

11. After a long evening at a bar, Cindy takes Amanda up on her offer to spend the night. The following day Amanda offers to drive Cindy back to Windsor since she will be heading that way to visit her grandfather.

12. A few months after Cindy’s interview, she arrives home and sees a letter on the kitchen table for her. She opens it and reads her acceptance letter to the Bachelor of Education program at UOIT.

13. Cindy realizes that she has a lot of planning to do, so gets started right away. She checks her account balance and realizes that it will be difficult to cover tuition and all of her costs.

14. Cindy goes online and fills out an application for a student loan right away. Then she begins to consider her transportation options for the following year as it will be a 104 mile round trip daily.

15. Her parents offer to lend their car to her for the academic year, but stress that it will be up to Cindy to cover her own gas and parking expenses.car parking expenses

16. Happy to have this option she heads back to the computer to investigate gas prices as well as parking costs.gas prices

17. She knows from reading her information packages that during Math Camp in August parking will be free. Cindy is still worrying about her budget so decides to look into renting a room in Oshawa.

18. She phones the school to find out the cost to live in residence and what it includes then inquires about off campus housing.residence off campus housing

19. She goes to the website to see if there are any rooms available and narrows the search down to an all inclusive room in a house, a basement apartment, and an apartment building.

20. Cindy consults the calendar for the school year (August 15 – May 4) and notes that it includes three placement blocks.calendar

21. Although the program is quite intensive she is happy to see that they get three weeks of Christmas vacation as well a reading week in February.

22. Cindy decides that she would like to speak to previous students, so she locates a website that they have created and joins a chat group.

23. She asks about managing school as well as a part time job, because she knows she will need that income to subsidize her costs, whether she lives at home or transfers to the Oshawa location.part time job

24. She also ends up chatting with a group of teacher candidates beginning the program with her, and discovers that there is someone else who lives in her area who tells her commuting by bus costs twice as much as her trip to Toronto.

25. She also offers to carpool if Cindy iscarpool interested and Cindy tells her she will let her know as soon as she has looked into all of her options.

26. Cindy needs to make a decision Challenge: Where would you choose to live? How would you get to school? How much would it cost? Justify your answers.

27. Car Specifications 2003 Toyota Corolla CE Sedan 1.8 L Automatic Unleaded Fuel Fuel Economy EPA Highway (l/100km):6.2 Curb Weight (kg) 1, 175

28. UOIT/Durham Parking Founders lot 2 or 3 $460/year $230/term $80/month $20/week $10 refundable charge for swipe card

29. Durham Transit Student Fare Rates Effective September 1, 2006 Student Cash Fare (single ride)$2.25 Student Monthly Pass – *Unrestricted $75.00 Student Monthly Pass - *Restricted $62.50 Student Multi Ride (10) $22.00 Full-time Student *FREE

30. Part-time Job Waitress $7.25/hour Average 15 hrs/week (double over Christmas holidays and reading week) Tips

31. Residence All fees due beginning of fall semester Simcoe Village South Hall/Central Hall $4,500 North Hall $4,900 South Village (must also purchase compulsory meal plan) meal plan All suites $4,900

32. Off Campus Housing Room in 4 bedroom house, all inclusive $500/mth, 6km from school on bus route Basement Apartment, all inclusive except phone, $600/mth, 10km from school on bus route 1 Bedroom Apartment, includes heat/water, $550/mth, 4km from school on bus route

33. Course Calendar Placement 1: 4 weeks Placement 2: 3 weeks Placement 3: 6 weeks Time off: 4 weeks (X-mas, reading week) In-Class Time: 21 weeks

34. Gas Prices Gas prices fluctuate, but will plateau around $1/litre Gas prices will rise around holidays and prior to long weekends

35. Carpooling Half of the parking cost for the year Half of the gas needed for the year Half of the cost of oil changes for the year (every 5000 km)

36. Greyhound Bus One Way Ticket Windsor to Oshawa Student Fare $46.40

37. Go Bus Schedule Adult single-ride ticket $8.15 Adult two-ride ticket $16.30 Adult 10-ride ticket $74.25 Adult monthly pass $263.00 Student 10-ride ticket $66.50 Student monthly pass $195.00 *From Oshawa(UOIT) to Toronto(Union)

38. Taxi Fare Blue Line $2.50 for first 71.4 m, $0.10 for every 71.4 m after Yellow Cab Flag (Includes first 1/13th KM) $2.70 $1.58 Per Kilometer $28.20 Per Hour City Taxi $2.75 for the first 0.235 km, $0.25 or each additional 0.190 km

39. Meal Plans The Ultimate –14 meals per week plus $250.00 flex dollars, $3495.00 Tax Free The Hearty Eater –12 meals per week plus $350.00 flex dollars, $3425.00 Tax Free The Commuter –10 meals per week plus $450.00 flex dollars, $3150.00 Tax Free The Commuter II –320 meals per year plus $400.00 flex dollars, $3295.00 Tax Free The Light Eater –250 meals per year plus $400.00 flex dollars, $2641.82 + GST The Mini Plan –200 meals per year plus $450.00 flex dollars, $2267.99 + GST