Helen ZhangRecently, the Student’s Union decided to move ahead with a referendum asking students if they approve of a $25 per semester fee for a new capital plan to address renovations to SUB. While this is a difficult time for the SU to be adding new fees, this one could do a lot of good.
SUB is going to need renovations, and that money has to come from somewhere, and that money very likely has to come from students. It’s either a fee like this, or the SU has to figure out how to scrape together a lot of funds every time something needs to be done, and that’s not good for the quality of work being done nor the budget.
In one sense, it doesn’t seem like this should matter much. I have classes in Tory and Humanities — I know things can run just fine in buildings that could use a bit of a touch-up. So why should I even care if places like the Myer Horowitz get renovated, especially if I never even use that space anyway?
The thing is, renovations on SUB are an investment for the funding of student services. SUB provides over $3 million in funding for student services each year. If enough maintenance isn’t done, not only will the space be worse for students, but as it deteriorates, it will bring in less and less revenue for the SU. So if these renovations don’t happen, we’ll either have to start paying far more for the same quality of services or accept a drop in that quality, neither of which is worth it when we can maintain what we’re getting now and possibly even increase it with a simple $25 per semester fee.
I’m not going to pretend like this is the perfect solution. I don’t think I’m alone in not quite being sure what this university is going to look like as the new provincial budget really starts to take effect, which makes this a rather problematic time to be adding to the financial burden students will have to deal with. Nonetheless, this is something that needs to happen somehow, and as long as the SU makes sure students are on board with this fee, and continues assessing that after the fee has gone into effect (which is what they appear to be doing), students won’t be forced into spending money on things they don’t find value in.
At the end of the day, $25 per semester is not a lot for the gains we can get out of it. Now’s a hard time to be adding new fees, but as long as the value of this fund is consistently being checked over the next few years, along with the general student population’s perception of it, it’ll eventually have a really positive effect on everyone at this university.
