University Increases Tuition by Maximum:

Student Governors Stand Up for Undergraduates

At last week’s Board of Governors meeting Undergraduate Students were fed two unfortunate pieces of information: tuition was increasing by the maximum allowable amount (without the Province cutting funding) and quality would be declining. This was not the news that undergraduates were looking to hear, as they worry about potential cuts to government funding and the realization that increased relief is not likely to be coming any time soon.

The two student governors who were the most vocal with their dissent about the University’s decisions were Sam Andrey and Justin Williams. First to respond to the motion to increase undergraduate tuition was Justin Williams who asked how the University could possibly justify increasing undergraduate tuition by the maximum amount when moments early they announced that they would be increasing the student to faculty ratio and lower the number of tenured faculty teaching undergraduates. This was met with a sobering response from University administrators and who said that they had no choice.

Justin, however, unsatisfied with their answers, pushed further accusing the University of expanding their graduate programs with a very serious cost to undergraduate students, “Undergraduates are being asked to take on a bigger burden so that we can expand our graduate enrolment. The markers that we set for quality are going down while the cost is going up.” For Justin it was a matter of fairness. Undergraduates should contribute to their education, not the education of Masters and PhD students.

To Justin’s comments Amit Chakma, VP Academic and Provost, answered “I wish I could give you a different answer”

At the same time that Justin was waging a debate on tuition increases versus reduction in quality, Sam Andrey pushed the University on the question of student access with increasing tuition costs and decreasing financial ability across major sections of the population. Andrey described the situation as Universities passing off responsibility to the Province and the Province passing the responsibility onto the Universities, so that no one is responsible to students who are struggling just to make ends meet.

In the end, the Board of Governors voted against the concerns laid out by Sam and Justin, but not before admitting that they wished they could find another way. In the future, both students have vowed to continue putting pressure on all levels of government and university administration to make sure that student accessibility and the quality of post secondary education are maintained.

Misquotes (from Sam Andrey)

Hi everyone. I just wanted to correct two misquotes in response to this week's Imprint article "Candidate cagematch".

1. CKMS quote: "I don’t think it would be helpful to send it to referendum, but if they get the required signatures I wouldn’t do anything to stand in their way.”
What I believe I said was that I don't think it would be Students' Council or Board's place to initiate a referendum to add a fee given last year's result, but that a referendum initiated by petition would be a legitimate course of action.

2. Justin's work as the 'public face': "As a director where it is his job to be accountable, that is his biggest weakness."
What I said was that “as a director, where it is my job to keep him accountable, that is his biggest weakness.” I, in no way, wanted to suggest that Justin has not been accountable to students. In fact, out of all four executives, he has been the only one to consistently report his actions to Council, Board, and campus media. He created the First Year Working Group specifically to increase opportunities for dialogue and leadership development with first years who often feel disconnected from the Federation. He made sure that large-scale issues (e.g., exam relief, UAE) were published in the media to increase student dialogue and get feedback. He also initiated a re-write of the Board procedures that will increase the ability of elected student representatives to set direction for the organization. I was very disappointed in the misquote and please know that I have never once felt Justin has been unaccountable to students as President.

Poster Update:

We will be putting posters up on campus after 6pm Friday night. We could use all hands on deck! <3 Sarah

How YOU can help Team Green!

Blog post #2 - Sarah

As we have been circulating around campus in the last week, we have met a great number of students who want to get involved in helping Team Green in the campaign. There are a number of ways you can get involved:

1. Join our Facebook group: “I Support Team Green for the 2009 FEDS Executive.” Please do add us on Facebook – this is our primary method of distributing new information to our supporters, and we encourage you to join today!
2. Share our picture on your Facebook profile: simply grab the profile picture from our Facebook group above, and make it your profile picture for the rest of the election.
3. Put up posters: we are putting up a second round of posters on Thursday, Feb 5. If you have a half hour free that day, we could really use your help! Simply message any member of Team Green on Facebook to let them know you’re interested.
4. Distribute Team Green’s flier cards: we have small green cards with basic information about each of our candidates, and could use your help in the next week in handing these out to students. Simply message any member of Team Green on Facebook to let them know you’re interested.
5. Tell your friends: word of mouth is vitally important to this election. If you’re supporting Team Green, be sure to let your social circle know so that they can stay informed, get to know the team and check feds09.com for more information

<3 Sarah (for Team Green)