On February 9, the UTM Campus Council reviewed both students’ compulsory non-academic incidental fees and the campus’ operating plans and fees. At the meeting, it approved increases to some incidental fees. 

Fees

Melinda Scott, students and student policy advisor, presented the 2021–2022 overview of compulsory non-academic incidental fees. 

Fees in the campus service category include student services, health services, and athletics and recreation at UTM, as well as fees for the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education and Hart House that are levied across all three campuses. Students are unable to opt out of these fees, and the cost will fluctuate based on each student’s full- or part-time status. 

The mandatory fees also include fees for the Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students, the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union, the U of T community radio CIUT 89.5 FM, and The Varsity. Students that attend UTM pay specific divisional fees — student society fees based on campus location — for the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU), the UTM’s Association of Graduate Students (UTMAGS), the radio station CFRE 91.9 FM, The Medium, the UTM Athletic Council, the Master of Management & Professional Accounting Student Society, and the UTM Residence Council.

Dean of Student Affairs & Assistant Principal, Student Services Mark Overton presented the overview of UTM’s operating plans and fees, as well as its compulsory non-academic incidental fees plan for 2022–2023. 

The health services and athletics & recreation fees remain unchanged. However, Overton presented an increase to $214.67 per session — $42.93 for part-time students — for the sessional Student Services Fees. This represents an increase of two per cent, or $4.31 per session — $0.86 for part-time students — from the 2021–2022 fees. 

In response to the presentations, Salma Fakhry — the previous chair of the group Quality Service to Students, a UTM group of students and administrators that looks for ways to improve student experiences, and a 2019 alum — said that “the single comment offered [from Quality Service to Students members] on all three fees was that students did appreciate the services and programs offered, but felt that the cost to attend the University of Toronto already presented a significant burden to students — more so during the pandemic.”

Overton said that the reason some fees were not increased was because “ultimately, over several years, the message [from students] comes through that they liked the services, but [there] is simply the financial challenge [from] increasing fees.” 

“This is about affordability,” added Overton. 

A number of student association fees are also set to increase, including the UTMAGS fee, which will start to increase its Mississauga Transit U-pass fee by $7.01 per session for full- and part-time students. Graduate students will also see an increase of $4.27 for the fall session and $4.28 for the winter session for both full- and part-time students because of the Mississauga Transit Summer U-Pass. In the 2022–2023 school year, all UTM-affiliated graduate students will be charged $236.89 per session in compulsory incidental fees.

The fees for the UTMSU will also see a number of increases, which were approved at the most recent UTMSU board meeting and then, more recently, by the Campus Council. The total UTMSU fee per semester could be as much as $425.58 for full-time students and $157.94 for part-time students, charged to all UTM undergraduate students. 

The total UTMSU fee per semester for students of the Mississauga Academy of Medicine will be up to $523.42 per session since the UTMSU increased the Mississauga Transit Summer U-Pass fee up to $8.08 per semester. 

Academic Affairs meeting 

The UTM Academic Affairs meeting on February 10 included Vice-Principal, Academic & Dean Rhonda McEwen’s presentation on the statistics of newly hired professors. 

There were 37 new hires across 14 faculties. The highest number of new hires in a “home unit” was eight, in the Institute of the Study of University Pedagogy. Of the 37 new hires, 34 were hired as assistant professors under teaching, tenure, and contracts, while only three were hired as associate professors under tenure. 

Additionally, 24 out of the 37 total new hires were women. Humanities departments received three new professors, all women. Social sciences received 17 professors, 11 of them women; science received 11 professors, seven of them women; and professional and applied sciences hired an equal number of women and men, at three each.