September 2, 2010
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Tuition advocacy campaign debuts
SU President argues possible $550 non-instructional fee is like “poison”
Spurred by a possible $550 per year mandatory fee and unprecedented tuition hikes, the Students’ Union has launched a campaign to inform and mobilize students against those financial burdens.
University of Alberta officials are proposing implementation of the increases in tuition and fees in an effort to offset a $59-million deficit in next year’s operating budget.
The SU solicited ideas from their campaign, entitled “Mind the Gap,” at a town-hall style meeting last Friday.
“We don’t think students should be paying these increases in the first place because it’s not a failing of students that has brought this [deficit] forward,” SU President Zach Fentiman said.
Posters and mock price tags are being distributed this week to make students aware and to encourage them to tell University and government officials about the impact the increased financial stress will have on them personally. The campaign’s website, uofafees.ca, also launched on Monday.
“We’re heavily encouraging people to visit the website and submit a letter to their MLA, and it submits a copy to the ministry as well,” Fentiman said.
Professional faculties would face the greatest increase with jumps in tuition facing incoming students, and grandparented rates affecting students who are continuing in their programs. These changes would likely be permanent.
A 2006 provincial agreement tied tuition to the Consumer Price Index, and the new differential tuition rates would break that if they're approved by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Technology.
“As it stands right now, differential tuition and the market modifier proposal has to go through the ministry; it has to be regulated,” Fentiman said. “What we were trying to get accomplished with the 2006 tuition fees regulation is a sustainable, predictable level of tuition.”
The non-instructional, Common Student Space, Sustainability and Security Fee, is a proposal that will need to be approved by the Board of Governors on March 26. The amount is yet to be finalized, but is capped at $550, which would be the largest jump in tuition since 1993. It would be imposed on every student next year, with part-time students paying half that amount.
“That fee in particular is not a very good policy decision on the part of the University. It’s strictly a stop-gap measure — a cash-grab,” Fentiman said.
This measure is expected to be rescinded once the gap is closed, but Fentiman isn’t confident on that point.
“The University [could] use this as a crutch,” he said. “We’re not seeing commitment that this is a short-term solution.”
“It’s a way for the University to go around the tuition fees regulation and charge whatever they want, because the Board of Governors at the U of A has the full capacity to charge non-instructional fees. It’s only in guidelines that they keep fees as low as possible, but they don’t have to obey,” Fentiman added.
The administration has promised more financial aid to lessen the costs’ impact.
“The grandparenting and the financial aid commitments and all that stuff, all that’s doing is making the poison taste better, but it’s still poison,” Fentiman argued.
Despite the University’s evident reliance on the fee and market modifiers to cover their deficit, Fentiman believes the campaign could still make a difference.
“It’s definitely something that the we’re hoping does deliver, and gets students thinking about what the University and government should be doing and sends a message to those bodies.”
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