When Meghyn Garner began flipping through her copy of the new Arts & Science registration handbook, she never predicted she’d find herself in the middle of every student’s worst nightmare.
Her stomach turned when she read that all students in her program, Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, must now pay the same deregulated tuition fees as students in the Computer Science program. That might mean an increase of 40 per cent or more, starting this summer—with no prior warning.
Panicked, she began making phone calls and sending e-mails to anyone who might know where this decision came from. But no one seemed to have a clue—not her fellow students, her professors, or even her program director.
Garner is convinced it’s more than a simple error. “A 40 per cent increase can’t really be a mistake,” she said. She’s not only upset because she wasn’t informed, but because she believes the tuition hike is illegal.
Provincial tuition rulings mandate that only students in engineering, computer science and commerce programs should pay deregulated fees. The Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence program combines computer science, philosophy, psychology and linguistics, and is offered through University College, not the Computer Science Department.
“The university has segregated us from the computer science program students, except when it comes to fees,” said Garner. She doesn’t see why she should pay hundreds or thousands more for a degree that requires only a few Computer Science courses. Enrolment controls give Cognitive Science students first-round access to only 20 per cent of upper-year CS courses. Students taking Computer Science minors, or those in other Arts & Science programs, will not have to pay higher fees for CS courses.
Garner suspects the university is taking advantage of her program’s small size, since there are only about two dozen students in Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence. “I think they are just trying to pull this past us,” she said. She is frustrated because students in her program do not graduate with the same earning potential as students in the deregulated programs, who may be better able to pay off their debts.
The Arts and Science Students’ Union (ASSU), also not notified of the tuition increase, is taking action. ASSU president Rakhi Bhavnani worries the university may be trying to keep the fee hike from becoming public. “There’s absolutely nothing on U of T’s website about it,” she said. ASSU plans to discuss the matter with the Arts & Science administration at a meeting Monday.
Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence program director Phillip Zelazo confirmed that he had not been consulted about the decision to raise fees, and neither had the program coordinator at University College. They plan to look into the matter. “I agree that it is unfair,” said Zelazo.
Donna George, undergraduate coordinator of the Computer Science department, was surprised to hear of the fee increase for Cognitive Science students, and said she had nothing to do with the decision. “It doesn’t involve Computer Science,” she said.
Meanwhile, Garner is waiting for an answer from Arts & Science dean George Altmeyer about whether the fee hike will stand. She worries whether students will be able to afford the sudden increase, since deregulated fees were already at $1100 per Computer Science course in 2001-2002, and will be going up as of next month.
She continues to circulate a petition and to try to make her program’s dilemma public. “I feel that what the university is doing is completely ridiculous and unwarranted,” she fumed. “They are just stealing money from us because they think they can.”
Altmeyer and assistant dean Peter Harris could not be reached for comment.
