If you happened to be at Sidney Smith around 1 pm yesterday you would have had the chance to see a graduation ceremony with a difference.
A group of students dressed in robes participated in a “debt graduation” where they stepped up on stage and showed the crowd how much debt they had accumulated in their time at university. MPP Rosario Marchese also received an honorary degree and made a speech about how the government had been underfunding education. Upon receiving his Honoris Debtis, Marchese gave a tongue-in-cheek speech where he thanked the government for “all that they have done for me. Thanks to the federal Liberal government we are practically eliminating poverty and people like me will not be able to come here one day and enjoy such an award.” The ceremony was part of the National Day of Action organized by the Canadian Federation of Students.
One of the “debt graduates,” Christopher Collins, who will be starting a PhD in computer science, has accumulated a debt of $39 000 from banks. “I have to pay interest on this loan…I have four years to go and I’m quite worried. The main message of today is that we need a tuition freeze…the budget should be funded by public funding. It is the responsibility of the government.”
Two students performers, Neil aka “Logical Ethix” and Sourav Deb aka “Unknown Misery” also took the stage to entertain in inform the crowd with their spoken word and music before everyone braved the cold to take the message of tuition reduction around the campus.
The crowd moved up St. George and stopped outside OISE where speeches were made. Sherry Rosner from the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation said “I want to convey our support and solidarity with your efforts here today…we know the value of quality public education …like you we know that education is a right…we know that all Canadians have a responsibility to provide your generation with an education unimpeded by financial barriers.”
Anthony Kola-Olusanya, a VP of OISE graduates made the point that “quality education is freezing tuition permanently and rolling back the cost of tuition so the debt burden of students can be reduced permanently.”
Students with disabilities also spoke about the difficulty that they face through inadequate accessibility of buildings such as Admissions and Awards.
The next stop was Varsity Stadium, then down past Hart House to the Medical Science building and finally Simcoe Hall. Other speakers included Student’s Administrative Council (SAC) President Ashley Morton who called Varsity stadium a metaphor for underfunding of university education. He called it a “big smoking hole in the ground…it used to be one of the pinnacles of what it meant to be a university…thanks to underfunding we have one step up from a gravel pit.” Outside the Munk Centre, speakers shared their thoughts on the corporatization of education.
John Hunter, who studies History Anthropology and English came to the rally for his another kind of education. “I hope to achieve awareness from people driving by and to build solidarity within this group. The speakers give us the information and statistics that we can use to fight other people who say that tuition is not high. I’m a mature student and OSAP considered me a dependent so I had to take a bank loan and the interests were ridiculous.”
SAC VP Operations Alexandra Artful Dodger explained how SAC got involved in the event. “We started something called the February Fourth Coalition which every student was allowed to participate in. SAC, APUS [Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students] and GSU [Graduates’ Student Union] endorsed the mandate of February Fourth…It is reflected in our policy that every student has a right to education irregardless of their income. Pubic education should be available for all classes in Canadian society as long as they are academically qualified. Our three main goals were to reduce tuition fees, to increase federal funding and to reduce debt.” Dodger spoke about the “ultimate goal” of free tuition saying that there are certain European countries that have free university tuition. “SAC believes in the abolition of tuition, but in the meantime the tuition freeze is an amazing victory that we achieved through protests such as this one. What we are trying to figure out is how to make that freeze continue after these two years or get a reduction like in Manitoba, Newfoundland and British Columbia.”
The protest was to wrap up with words from U of T President Robert Birgeneau but he declined to come and speak to those who were gathered in waiting. The protesters were not amused. Shanta Varma, a medical student said “it’s disrespectful. We should have full university support for tuition freezes.”
Kelly Holloway of the GSU said that “Students have a right to know what the university president thinks from his own mouth. He has the responsibility to come down and speak to us…We want to see him out here, we want to see him, out here with us, it puts pressure on the provincial government and I am incredibly disappointed that he didn’t come.”
Birgeneau later released a statement of support for the rally, noting “I welcome the opportunity to add my voice in support of increased funding for Ontario’s post-secondary institutions.” The president didn’t exactly come out in favour of tuition freezes or rollbacks, however, claming the provincial government’s two-year tuition freeze promise will deprive U of T of $45 million in the next two years.
