With a $9 million deficit on the horizon, we accept the fact that U of T will have to make some painful financial decisions. But the flat fees solution proposed by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—which will require incoming students to pay a set, five-course fee rather than paying per course—holds serious repercussions for students working their way through school, gaining valuable experience on campus, or simply trying to balance extracurricular commitments while keeping up their grades. The proposal will affect a sizable portion of the student body, and yet it’s being rushed through with little regard for student needs.
The full-time versus part-time split already poses severe problems for working students. Part-time students have no respite from student loan officers, and full-time students have no time to earn a living. Add an emaciated job market to the situation, and it’s hard to imagine where the Faculty imagines students are going to find the income to be students, even if part-time. The Faculty’s proposal for a flat fee is rich given that we’ve heard time and again that tough economic times are good times to be in school. This obvious problem has only been addressed provisionally by flat-fee proponents. We still don’t know how or when students will reap the benefits.
It’s not just a personal finance issue. The flat fee proposal is supposed to improve the classroom experience, but for many students, that’s only half of what being at U of T is about. U of T is vocationally challenged: many departments suffer from a serious lack of internship and work-study opportunities. Of course, a university this size offers myriad options for students hoping to bolster their employability after graduation. The catch is that you have to find them yourself, and you have to commit to them on your own time.
At The Varsity, we know all too well how difficult it is to be an active member of the student community and an active student at the same time. We take fewer courses because our time is finite. And it goes without saying that nobody has money to waste.
Any university experience consists of more than simply attending classes. It means getting involved on campus, finding opportunities, and boosting one’s CV. For many students it means hard work in and out of class, scrounging for enough money to pay the bills, and performing well enough academically to justify the expense of being enrolled. The flat fees proposal presupposes a streamlined educational experience that does not exist for the majority of students, here or anywhere.
We might have more patience for the Faculty’s proposal if we truly believed it was a last-ditch effort to solve the deficit. Instead, the university’s first step whenever financial troubles arise is to download the cost to students. In an age of bailouts, it’s time for David Naylor to lay some very public tough talk on the province. And the province might listen—that is, if flat fees weren’t already an option.
