U of T student leaders are rallying support for the February 6 “Freeze Tuition Fees” National Student Day of Action, to “tell both governments and the University of Toronto that enough is enough,” that it’s time to freeze tuition and put an end to talk of deregulation.
An unprecedented band of student groups, including the Students’ Administrative Council (SAC), the Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students (APUS), the Graduate Student Union (GSU) and the Arts and Science Students’ Union (ASSU), have come together to “[call] for a tuition freeze and an end to deregulation in order to keep post-secondary education accessible regardless of socio-economic status.”
A recent poll showed that 82 per cent of Ontarians support freezing tuition. In 1998, the Provincial Government deregulated tuition for graduate and certain professional programmes. Student leaders are concerned that an announcement made by the provincial government last December could mean deregulation of undergraduate programs will be next. The government is considering a plan put forward by Queen’s University for such an idea. High tuition is already a problem: according to APUS president Emily Sadowski, many students “struggle to stay here every day,” and many are dropping out due to high tuition costs. “We’re here because education is a right, and access to education is an important right,” said Sadowski.
“Students that come from lower income families are being cut out of education altogether,” said GSU’s Vice-President External Elisabeth Gilmore. Rally goals include telling the administration at U of T that tuition is too high and telling the provincial government that funding must be restored to post-secondary education.
Although the university has not endorsed any position, in a memo written on January 8, Vice-President and Provost Adel Sedra asked faculty members not to penalize students attending the rally so “students have the opportunity to participate if they wish…reaffirming the University of Toronto’s commitment to strong public funding of Canadian higher education.” However, he adds, “In asking for this consideration, the University is not endorsing the campaign or its particular demands and positions.”
Ideally, ASSU President Rakhi Bhavnani “would like to see the administration stand with us on February 6.”
The university is moving towards primarily need-based scholarships, but Gilmore feels that need-based grants can’t be seen as an excuse to raise tuition. Kerner sees it as an unrealistic solution: “It’s hard to imagine with a school of 50,000… that they’ll [the administration] be able to cover the needs of all these students merely by creating some form of needs-based scholarships.”
Over the next coming weeks, student leaders across campus will be advertising the rally. Kerner is positive about the support so far. “For the first time, we have united all four of the U of T representative [student] bodies plus the Erindale College student union supporting this day of action.”
The National Student Day of Action is organized by the Canadian Federation of Students, and will see organized demonstrations protesting high tuition costs across the country.
As for the administration, Kerner believes they should use their influence at Queen’s Park “to lobby for more funding to post-secondary education rather than accepting what’s happened as done.”
Kerner sees February 6’s Day of Action as a launch for future fights to “make sure that our administration not only stops this talk of deregulation but actually begins rolling back tuition in programs that have been deregulated.” He is optimistic about student attendance.
“I think we actually have the potential for having an incredible turnout at U of T, to send the message to the administration that students are united around the issue of tuition.”
An open meeting is being held on January 23 to determine how to be most effective on February 6. Contact Alex Kerner at SAC 416 978-4911 for more information.
