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The Ryerson student SPC card

By Badri Murali

Many students are constantly looking around for ways to save money. For some Ryerson students, a booklet was placed in their frosh kits this year about the Ryerson Students’ Preferred Network (RSPN).

The RSPN has information about businesses around the university which offer Ryerson students a discount on their products and services.

Unlike previous years, the RSPN is a service which will continue on a year-long basis, rather than just a short-term series of discounts. It was developed by Reuben dela Vega, a student development ambassador with the Ryerson Commerce Society (RCS). Vega describes it as “a collective of deals and discounts in one.”

“You know how in frosh kits, some partners and sponsors just drop in their coupons and what not, right? We decided, why don’t we just do a better version and keep it going?” said Vega.

Vega started working on the RSPN in May to find sponsors for RCS’ frosh week, but after a meeting with Ryerson President Sheldon Levy in July, he decided to make the partnership something more.

“That was the turning point — essentially Sheldon saying that he believed in this idea and thought that it was a good one pushed me further into taking this into the future. And after that meeting … it just grew from then,” said Vega.

The 12 partners are a mix of restaurants, apps and other stores. The restaurants are:

  • The Hard Rock Café
  • Basil Box
  • Bareburger
  • Scaddabush
  • Reds Midtown Tavern
  • Duke’s Refresher + Bar
  • Denny’s
  • Burrito Boyz

The two included apps are Uber and Scabb and students can also get a Ryerson specific discount at Contiki and CopyRITE.

The first business to become a partner was the Hard Rock Café Toronto at 279 Yonge St. Crystal Watts, the sales and marketing manager of the restaurant, said that even though they have partnered with Ryerson on other events in the past, the RSPN will further help Ryerson students get deals.

“The benefit of this partnership is an increase in Ryerson Menu redemptions (discounted menu only for Ryerson students). We also have new this year, a free soda with any food purchase for Ryerson students,” said Watts in an email.

Right now, Ryerson students can access this network through the hard copy of the booklet or online through the RCS’ website. Vega says that he is working with members of the RCDS on this and that before the RSPN does anything more, it must get more popular with students.

“We launched the booklet and all its content during frosh and we’re still working on it, we have some left over, but the next steps would be that we have a registered website and social media for ease of access. As long as people know about it and want to know about it and we intend to have a website and social media for it in the future.”

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