A Carleton Board of Governors (BoG) committee tasked with looking into rising tuition costs released a report concluding “there are no feasible alternatives to raising the cost of tuition” from year to year for the university to remain in good financial standing.
The Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) launched a petition in response March 11 calling on students to reject the idea that tuition must increase.
According to the report, the Task Force on the Affordability of the Tuition-fee Framework was formed in response to an open letter written by the BoG to the political parties of Ontario, as well as growing concern of affordable education.
The report stated members of the task force reviewed university finances, Ontario provincial funding, student aid, tuition fees, and other relatable factors to the 2015-16 operating budget before concluding its findings.
Though the findings state there are no feasible alternatives to raising the cost of tuition, GSA councillor Russell Burgess and Graduate Academic Caucus representative Scott Jarosiewicz both disagreed with the report’s conclusion.
The report added Ontario students are aware of the financial aid programs they can access through the province.
The report included several options that could be explored to help lower tuition, including cutting faculty pay and reducing money allocated to building maintenance, but still concluded tuition must increase.
The GSA responded by posting the petition along with an open letter on its website.
“The report, plagued with misleading information and unsubstantiated claims, establishes that a tuition fee freeze is not possible,” the GSA’s open letter said. “We disagree.”
Each year, Carleton can legally raise tuition by a maximum three per cent for undergraduates and by a maximum of five per cent for graduate students. There is no cap for increasing international student school fees, according to Theo Hug, the GSA’s vice-president (external).
“We need to stop the differential fees and impose the same regulations on all types of students,” he said.
Hug added each signature to the petition launched by the GSA sends an email to the inbox of every board member.
Duncan Watt, Carleton’s vice-president (finance and administration), said the money spent each year on the university is essential.
“Negotiated increases to salaries for unionized employees, increased utilities rates, increased costs for materials such as library acquisitions” are all necessary costs for the university this year, Watt said in an email.
Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) president Folarin Odunayo also sat on the committee responsible for the report. He said although a lot of work went into it, he does not agree with the findings.
“In the report it says if we don’t increase tuition, we’d have to do several things to make up for it,” Odunayo said. “I think it comes down to whether we’re willing to do these things.”
He added the work done by the task force cannot be disputed, and that some of the information the GSA provided on its website is clouding the general argument for lowering tuition.
Odunayo said he is working with Maddy Porter, CUSA’s vice-president (student issues), to create a campaign to combat the issue of rising tuition.
“We really do need these people behind the doors to lower tuition,” she said. “It’s all about having the discussion, because if we do just picket, it’s not going to work.”
Porter said CUSA events such as financial literacy week help give students the information they need about bursaries, scholarships, and tax clinics. She said these events show students are willing to exhaust their options in order to finance their education.
“We need to show essentially that we are working really hard to find other ways to finance our education and that we are not lazy students,” Porter said.
The Carleton University Student Action Movement and the GSA are holding a rally on March 30 against the rising tuition fees titled “Tuition Fees are Too Damn High.”
Odunayo said CUSA has informed its constituents of the rally and offered to help publicize it.
The task force’s report was reviewed by the BoG’s Financial Committee on March 18, and will be discussed at the next general BoG meeting March 30.
