The results from last week’s tuition plebiscite are out, and they aren’t likely to surprise you.

According to the Students’ Administrative Council (SAC), the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) and the Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students (APUS), 98 per cent of the 3,753 SAC students who cast a ballot from November 1 to 3 thought tuition should stay frozen or be reduced.

The plebiscite was part of a larger Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) campaign that kicked into high gear recently, when the McGuinty government officially confirmed the end of the two-year tuition freeze. The freeze had applied to domestic students in non-professional programs; next September, tuition for these students will go up.

“The government ended consultation on continuing the tuition fee freeze,” said Jen Hassum, VP External for SAC, “so we thought of doing a mass consultation with students to get how they felt with regards to what tuition should be set at.”

The most recent plebiscite outside U of T, at York University, had nearly the same results. But as obvious as these results seem, Hassum and Jesse Greener, Ontario Chairperson of the CFS, think the plebiscites are valuable.

“I think it is very important that we hear the unified voice of students,” said Greener. “You hear from government officials, and they’re very receptive to the idea that not all students agree with [lower tuition]. There is a very strong consensus on campuses [that that is not the case].”

Hassum spoke to the importance of the campaign itself.

“Class presentations were amazing,” she said. “People were applauding, people were signing petitions, people were actually getting involved.”

Some might wonder who the two per cent who support tuition increases are. Christopher McKinnon, a U of T student, doesn’t support the freeze.

“I think that a prolonged tuition freeze could have potentially crippling effects on Ontario universities,” he said. “The fact of the matter is that even if tuition is frozen, inflation will make the fees that we do pay less valuable. And that means that we start to fall behind.”

McKinnon is no stranger to the cost of education. He’s racked up $21,000 in loans.

“I know exactly what my education has cost me and I know the value of it,” he says. “I probably wouldn’t feel the same way if this had cost me nothing.”

McKinnon may not have many allies on campus at U of T. But come January, whatever their point of view, students will watch the government unveil a new “tuition fee framework,” dictating how much fees can rise.

For 98 per cent of U of T students, it’s not going to be good news.