On April 2, Alison Martell, The Varsity’s director of recruitment and training, received an award recognizing her efforts to improve the student experience. Painfully aware of the award’s ironic tone in light of the Flat Fees proposal, Martell handed the following letter to David Naylor when they shook hands at the ceremony.

Dear President Naylor,

I come here today with a heavy heart. I am honoured to be receiving this award, and pleased that you are supporting initiatives to improve the student experience. But your flat fee scheme will fundamentally undermine the work that we are all recognizing today, and I cannot accept this award without speaking out.

I have been involved with The Varsity since first year. The student press is my foundation, an institution that I love, but not immune to criticism. I have always been concerned that the paper is too insular and elitist, that we do not reflect the diversity of U of T’s student body. At the end of last year, I proposed a new masthead position to address these issues: the director of recruitment and training.

I built a system for recruitment, so that anyone who e-mailed us could have a chance to contribute. I organized training workshops and public events, and mentored students one-on-one through their first assignments. The number of new contributors has increased by orders of magnitude. I see this as the beginning of a long process, but presumably this award recognizes some progress made.

This relates to flat fees in two ways. The first is that I would never have pursued this project under flat fees. I took three courses this year so that I could work at The Varsity, keep up my marks, and coordinate the G8 Research Group’s compliance reports, a nearly full-time pursuit that allows 100 other students to participate in original research. None of my positions come with a salary, and I could not have justified paying full-time fees.

The second, and more important, is that my work at The Varsity will be undermined by this initiative. Our paper is run by editors taking reduced course loads. Many of our writers take only four courses. By stretching their degrees out over time, our staff can manage the part-time jobs they need in the short-run against the journalism experience and good grades they need in the long run. Under flat fees, The Varsity would be written only by students who can afford to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege.

I know that times are tough, but a tax on student leaders is not the right place to find revenue. As student organizations collapse, your initiatives to improve campus life will also fail. I know you understand that to attract top students, this university must improve the student experience. In the medium and long run, flat fees will do more harm than good, no matter how much they improve the university’s financial position. Please, reconsider this initiative.

Yours truly,

Allison Martell