How free pancakes overshadowed tuition increase approvals

Pancake breakfasts taste much better knowing there isn’t a meeting regarding tuition increase being held at the same time. Recently, the Board of Governors (BoG) held a meeting to approve the increase in tuition and to address the equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) hiring policy. At the same exact time, the University of Alberta Students’ Union (UASU) held a pancake breakfast for students. The issue at hand is not whether or not these events were purposefully put on at the same time. The issue is that a large part of the job portfolio of UASU executives is to advocate for students — tuition increases being one of those things. But, the UASU executives seem to have given up on organizing any kind of rally to fight back on these issues.

Over the last academic year, the U of A has been proposing a tuition increase for the fall 2026 semester onwards. This plan was approved by BoG on March 27. For domestic students, tuition will increase by two per cent, and it will increase by 5.5 per cent for international students starting their program in fall 2027. Much of the tuition increase goes towards salaries and benefits for professors on campus. The rest makes its way to regular maintenance needed to keep campus in good condition. But students still feel ripped off and wonder why this burden falls on them.

It’s a simple matter of fact that things have become more expensive. The data for how many current students in Alberta take out student loans is unavailable. The most recent data is from 2022. A little over 105,000 students in Alberta took out loans through Alberta Student Aid in the 2021–22 academic year. Compared to the academic year before, a little over 93,000 students took out loans. Jumping to 2024, there were reports of student loans “ballooning.” With all this data, we can make an educated guess that even more students have taken out loans in this last academic year.

With everything becoming more expensive, why not tuition too? While it’s clear the increase in tuition is going to the right places, why are students the ones who have to pay? Simply put, it’s because the Alberta government has stopped giving as much funding as they used to. Since 2019, the Alberta government cut funding to universities by $222 million over three years. During the 2020–21 academic year, most of the U of A’s income came from government funding. Jumping to this academic year, tuition accounts for more of the income. Now, the United Conservative Party (UCP) is, essentially, floating the idea that they will take away funding from universities who exhibit too many EDI policies. At the end of all of this, students feel the consequences more than anyone else.

At the end of the day, it’s impossible for UASU execs to change the outcome of what the UCP does to university funding. But, that doesn’t mean their job is obsolete. In previous years, when tuition increases were troubling students, the UASU execs pulled together to protest these matters. Even if the protests didn’t lead to change, it ultimately brought awareness for students on campus. The silver lining is that advocating for students is more than half the job of any UASU exec. No one should expect them to change what’s out of their control. But, this situation to hold protests and rallies instead of pancake breakfasts is very much in their control.