By: Areej Ali
This past November marked the launch of “Tax-Free Tuesdays,” an initiative proposed by McMaster Students Union president Ikram Farah during the 2018 presidential election.
The pilot project, created in collaboration with McMaster Hospitality Services, entailed offering students a 13 per cent discount at La Piazza during the month of November.
Farah initially created the initiative in effort to promote food affordability on campus.
“Food insecurity is real. The MSU invests in the operations of the MSU Food Collective Centre to offer immediate food support to students,” said Farah in a Silhouette article about the project from November.
With the winter semester coming to an end, McMaster Hospitality Services director Chris Roberts has confirmed that “Tax-Free Tuesdays” project will not continue in the future.
The aim was to have increased traffic flow in La Piazza, which would offset the financial losses resulting from giving students the discount.
According to Roberts, La Piazza did not see increased traffic in November.
“The data clearly showed that our transactions on the Tax-Free Tuesdays were no different than previous Tuesdays ,which resulted in a significant loss in revenue over the course of the pilot,” said Roberts. “This indicates that students continued their usual habits regardless of the discount.”
He cites Union Market’s elimination of their boxed water, suggesting that McMaster Hospitality Services must continue to operate in a financially responsible manner.
As such, the “Tax-Free Tuesdays” project will likely not resurface next year.
When asked for her comment on McMaster Hospitality Services’ decision, Farah did not provide a response to The Silhouette.
There is a lack of clarity with respect to McMaster students’ feedback from the project, including whether or not they believe there was sufficient advertising from the MSU.
Farah and the MSU have also yet to publicly respond to Roberts’ comments and McMaster Hospitality Services’ decision.
“I believe there are other initiatives that we could look at that serve the needs of students who are financially challenged that will not affect our financials in a negative way,” said Roberts.
An example of one such initiative is Bridges Cafe’s new “Cards For Humanity” program, a pay it forward initiative through which students donate to other students.
According to Roberts, students can expect to see various food accessibility initiatives emerge, but “Tax-Free Tuesdays” will no longer be one of them.
For over 25 years the McMaster Alumni Association has partnered with affinity companies to bring valuable services and discounted benefits to students, alumni as well as faculty and staff. If you’re a student, you may have encountered some friendly folks reaching out to you to sign up for a BMO McMaster MasterCard in the Student Centre. And perhaps you might have looked into renters insurance in your second year when you moved off campus through TD Insurance Meloche Monnex. We hope you’ve enjoyed flashing your MasterCard with the image of our beloved Edwards Arch and felt a little surge of pride when a cashier or server comments on the great looking card, or says, oh, hey, I go to MAC too! Perhaps when you graduate, you’ll need to replace your health and dental insurance and will look to Manulife Financial for that. Further on, you’ll switch that renters insurance to house insurance and may want to protect your growing family with life insurance. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves!
The MAA’s goal with the affinity programs has always been to offer a great deal or added value on a service or product you need. And, over the years, thousands of students and alumni have participated in these programs. With excellent customer service survey reports and impressive retention rates, we are confident that the programs are delivering the quality experience that we expect.
You may wonder what else the alumni association get out of these programs. You may enjoy knowing that your participation in these programs helps to contribute to programs and initiatives back here at MAC, without any additional cost to you! Over the years, through growth in these programs, the MAA has supported student bursaries and scholarships, helped fund Alumni Field, the McMaster University Student Centre, helped bring you Light up the Night, as well as countless student group initiatives, conferences and events that contribute to the diverse learning and social opportunities that make for an awesome university experience.
So, if you’re carrying that McMaster MasterCard in your wallet, we hope you feel good about using it and we hope you are even more stoked about the discount you received on your insurance. If you’d like to learn more about the affinity programs offered through the association, check us out anytime at alumni.mcmaster.ca – Access Benefits. Questions? Contact alumni@mcmaster.ca or call 905-525-9140, x. 23900. And hey, thanks for your participation!
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