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.