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NEWS
Lobbying for tuition freeze
by Ashley Martin
(read)
Turn on to Street Cents
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Li McLeod
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FEATURES
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Sex tips for the under-educated
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Eyes on Sports
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Fit as a Fiddle
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Schweitzer shines for Cougars
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ARTS
Jones returns as fantastic as ever
by Ashley Martin
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Trew genius at the Owl
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COMMENTARY
Editorial
This article has 22 words on Carolyn Parrish
by Steven Kiser
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ABM’s are unavoidable
Commentary
by Matt Barton
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Confessions of a Freshman
My best friend
by Amy O’Teri
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A guide to stress-free exams
by Julie Folk
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Freezing tuition is a bad idea
by Matt Barton
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The Good Fight
Accumulation nation
by Justin Ludwig
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Lobbying for tuition freeze
by Ashley Martin
the Carillon
Tuition fees leave students in the cold
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- graphic by Carlos Gomes Dams
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Though the students’ unions in Saskatchewan’s two universities believe a tuition freeze would be a favourable option for students, other sources disagree.
In a press conference on Tuesday, November 16, the University of Regina Students’ Union (URSU) announced that they, along with the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union (USSU), would begin lobbying the provincial government for a tuition freeze. Their decision came as a result of U of S Professor Emeritus John Conway’s new study entitled Improved Access to a More Affordable University Education in Saskatchewan, which recommends that a tuition freeze lasting a minimum of two years be implemented immediately.
Leah Sharpe, URSU vice president of external affairs, is pleased about the study.
“Students applaud the finding,” she said. “It confirms what we’ve been saying for a long time.”
Tuition fees in Saskatchewan have risen 217 per cent in the last 13 years and, at present, Saskatchewan students are paying the third highest tuition fees in Canada. In light of these harrowing figures, Minister of Learning Andrew Thomson agrees tuition prices “can’t keep climbing the way they have been,” but he is opposed to a tuition freeze.
“The $15 million it would cost for a tuition freeze in the next two years would come at the cost of other programs,” Thomson said, adding, “We have not ruled out the possibility of other forms of funding.”
The provincial government’s present endeavours include a post secondary tax credit, Centennial Merit scholarships and student loans, which are some alternatives to a tuition freeze.
Conway, however, does not believe student loans can cut it, as Saskatchewan students graduate with more debt than the average Canadian student. Moreover, “if you’re middle income, you don’t get very big loans,” he said, explaining the decline in attendance of middle-income students in Saskatchewan institutions.
Nor does he believe the tax credit will help.
“When you have $40,000 in debt, a $500 tax credit is not going to make a difference.
“Something has to be done.”
In 2002, British Columbia institutions came out of a six-year freeze with an increase of 26 per cent. The following year, a 30 per cent increase occurred, the largest increase in undergraduate tuition fees in B.C. history.
Statistics like these enforce Thomson’s opposition to freezes. “In other provinces, where the tuition is frozen, they haven’t had a very good experience.”
Thomson is not alone in his opposition to tuition freezes. Brock University president and chancellor, Dr. David Atkinson, agrees.
The St. Catherine’s Ontario institution’s tuition has been frozen, along with that of all other post-secondary institutions in the province, since April of this year. Atkinson, the former dean of Arts and Science at the U of S, is thoroughly opposed to the freeze.
“My overarching concern is that in concentrating on tuition freezes, we ignore entirely the three critical issues of financial aid, quality [of education]—students deserve the best education, and accessibility—all students, regardless of income, deserve an opportunity to attend university.”
He believes a tuition freeze “let’s the government off the hook” and it doesn’t address the real problem of an “inadequate financial aid system in Canada.”
Atkinson also believes the university, not the student, suffers the greater consequence in a tuition freeze.
“The consequence for each student is considerably less than the cumulative impact on the university when it is multiplied out by the number of students paying tuition.”
Matt Barton, a fourth-year political science student at the U of R, agrees with him.
“Tuition freezes are unsustainable. They hurt the university more than they help,” he said. “The quality of education would suffer with a long-term tuition freeze.”
Regardless, Sharpe and the rest of URSU’s executive will lobby for a freeze.
“We hope the government is listening,” she said.
Thomson said it is unlikely that a freeze will occur in Saskatchewan, let alone this fall.
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