University presidents are chickening out when it comes to demanding education funding, according to the NDP’s education critic.
In an open letter to the Council of Ontario Universities (COU), MPP Rosario Marchese called on Ontario university presidents to speak with a strong, united voice in favour of education funding. He says he continually sees presidents letting the government off the hook when they fail to fund education. High tuition fees, deferral of capital maintenance, high faculty-student ratios and faculty shortages are all issues they should tackle more aggressively, he says.
“We constantly are worried about how to get the issue of funding for the post-secondary sector to the public,” said Marchese. He believes people are unaware of chronic underfunding.
“We need the public to become actively involved in this issue and for whatever reason, they’re not. The presidents of universities and colleges are in a wonderful position to say what worries them publicly.”
Arnice Cadieux, executive director of public affairs at COU, says the council is unable to comment on Marchese’s letter because they have not discussed it, but generally, the council is involved in getting more funding for universities.
“We’re very actively engaged in bringing to light the need for funding. The university presidents are out there front and centre to create awareness and work towards solutions.”
Cadieux says the double cohort is a priority for the council now and they are creating public awareness through the media and by speaking at public meetings with key stakeholders in this issue, including students and parents.
“This is a front burner, priority issue,” said Cadieux. According to her, lack of funds is part of the double cohort problem.
Sheldon Levy, U of T’s vice-president of governmental and institutional affairs, says underfunding is something the university is constantly grappling with. “We take action all the time, every single moment of every single day.”
He blames the media and public for failing to make university underfunding headline news. “The difficulty is we’re never front page news. It’s not the effort that’s waning; we simply can’t get through to the public. We simply failed to capture the attention of the public.”
Levy says the priority for government and the public now are healthcare issues.
Lindsay Tabah, SAC’s vice-president education, welcomed Marchese’s comments. “I think it’s a fantastic start that our MPPs are calling on university presidents to act. Birgeneau has to go to the provincial, federal governments and education ministries and say we need money. We need more than grants, we need steady funding.”
In a previous interview with the Varsity, though, U of T president Birgeneau said tuition fees are not the problem. Rather, it’s student debt. He has proposed a needs-based financial aid system for U of T and is in discussion with McMaster, Guelph, University of Western Ontario, Queen’s and Waterloo about such a plan.
Marchese dismissed Birgeneau’s intentions, noting that it probably wouldn’t be enough to deal with the 44 per cent of U of T students graduating with debt. “Does he intend to cover 44 per cent with the needs-based scholarship? Only a minority of students would get it. I fear that the corollary to needs-based scholarships is increased tuition fees.”
He does not believe needs-based financial aid would help the problem of high tuition. “It doesn’t solve the incredible burden that families pick up. It doesn’t mean that parents aren’t struggling to help the students.”
Lack of operating funds for 2003-2004 will mean U of T will only have three-quarters of the money required for the anticipated $100 million in new expenses. This shortfall means budget cuts will be forthcoming, with a predicted four to five per cent budget decrease for the next two years.
