Recently, the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) has waged a short-sighted and irresponsible campaign against the university’s flat fees policy. Flat fees, originally brought in by the Faculty of Arts & Science in 2009 and extended to the full five-course requirement in 2011, have served the university and its student body well.

The way the new policy works is quite simple: as of 2015, a student will pay on a per-course basis if they take  three or fewer courses. If said student wishes to take more courses, they must pay flat fees, which are the same between 3 and 6 courses per year.

The first benefit that this system brings is that it encourages students to take more courses. In effect, students who are slacking off subsidize those who work for a more rigorous education.

An objection that is raised to this by the UTSU in “We are not cash cows,” — vice-president, university affairs, Agnes So’s op-ed in the November 25 issue of The Varsity — is that many students have work obligations that prevent them from taking a full course load. This objection is unfair to U of T. Students who have part-time work are still regularly able to cope with a full timetable. Those who by economic necessity are forced to work full-time or near full-time hours are probably not looking to attend an institution like U of T, which schedules its classes during the middle of the day rather than late at night and is focused on intense research.

What U of T is good at as an institution is providing an expensive and intense research-based education during normal hours. This is not to discount part-time students, but rather to note that providing a flexible and cheap education is a specialty that many institutions in the GTA fulfill quite well; U of T, however, will never be the best place for part-time students.

Another benefit of flat fees is that they raise more money for the university. If not for flat fees, U of T would have to either cut back on education or charge higher fees for a full course load. It is highly unlikely that increased funding from the provincial government or private donors would be available solely to fund the removal of flat fees. Thus, any additional funding would end up being removed from other priorities in this event as well.

Flat fees serve as a means by which U of T can be better funded in which slackers subsidize harder working students. The campaign against this prudent and necessary policy on behalf of the UTSU is particularly disturbing. Most U of T students have seen the UTSU put up snazzy posters around campus — advertising the union’s campaign against the flat-fees policy — while on the same block witnessing more expensive paraphernalia protesting the current cost of tuition. It is sad that the UTSU never informs U of T students that these goals are currently at odds with one another.

It is also disappointing that the UTSU has currently taken advantage of Ontario’s Liberal government. Given the vulnerability of Kathleen Wynne’s current minority administration, the UTSU has tricked the training, colleges, and universities minister, Brad Duguid, into thinking that the it is the true voice of U of T students. It is not, and I would advise minister Duguid and the Wynne administration not to capitulate to the over-zealous voice of a few radicals and instead work towards a sustainable funding plan for Ontario higher education.

The UTSU, for its part, should focus more on gauging the concerns of U of T students, something which has been a persistent problem for the organization, before engaging in large-scale political activism. Currently the UTSU is in conflict with the rest of the university, posting a petition on its website advocates for a policy that would damage all other parties on campus. Instead, the student union should join president Gertler in calling for more government funding for core academic programs and a performance-based method for distributing resources.

Instead of hostility both to students and the administration, the UTSU must work to improve U of T rather than harm it. The UTSU must come to see the university administration as a partner rather than an enemy.

 

Jeffrey Schulman is a first-year student at Trinity College studying international relations.