With summer classes being made online only, some Carleton University graduate students are calling on the school to cut tuition costs for the summer term.

“Every summer we have to pay full tuition and that’s justified saying, ‘Oh you have access to the gym and you have access to the library and you have a shared office on campus, and so there’s costs associated with that,’” said Megan Lonergan, CUPE 4600 president and fourth-year PhD student at Carleton University.

“We’re still required to pay them money this summer even though we can’t access services on campus, so we’ve been asking what are we paying thousands of dollars for–to sit at home and read and write, which is what we would be doing anyways?” she added.

”Why are we paying Carleton to write from our own apartment?”

Worried about the financial security of graduate students, Lonergan, whose union represents teaching and assistant contract instructors at Carleton University, decided to spearhead an online petition on March 23 asking administration not to charge graduate students full tuition for the summer 2020 term.

“At a time when we’re all kind of struggling to pay bills and pay rent, now we are expected to pay summer tuition,” Lonergan said. “But we don’t actually get access to what the fees normally pay for.” 

Creator of the change.org petition Meg Lonergan and the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) say graduate students are struggling financially in light of COVID-19. [Photo from file]
Although the university has put some flexible measures in place, such as allowing graduate students to apply for leave from their programs over the summer term, which is usually prohibited because it affects program completion, Lonergan said this solution is still problematic.

“If you’re not registered, then you cannot hold a priority teaching assistantship and you cannot apply for an out of priority teachingship, and you also can’t hold what is called an article 17 contract instructor position which is for PhD students,” Lonergan explained. 

“You have to also be enrolled in order to receive any scholarship money you have won,” she added.

Speaking from her own experience of paying tuition to keep her scholarship, Lonergan said the process feels counterintuitive. 

“I have to spend money to keep the money that was supposed to be guaranteed to me for the summer,” she said. 

“So, the cleanest way for Carleton to help graduate students would be to let people enrol, in order to keep their priority, keep their scholarship, but then also not have to pay out thousands of dollars to Carleton for virtually nothing in return,” she added.

GSA executives said they fully support the petition and are in talks with the university over reduced summer tuition. [Photo from file]
“We’re definitely in 100 per cent support for partial or full—fingers crossed, but it’s Carleton—tuition refunds,” Shalimar Woods, vice-president operations of Carleton University’s Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) said of the petition. 

“More funding for students, more money in their pockets because we’re all in a hard place right now, so that way students can get through the summer,” she added.

Woods also said 150 graduate students demonstrated need for increased financial support by answering a GSA survey. According to the 150 responses, the top priorities for graduate students in light of COVID-19 is rent payment, tuition fees, as well as food needs and supplies. 

“Our emergency relief funding was gone within 12 hours once we put up the post,” Woods said of the GSA’s emergency grants. “It was intense.”

“We’re trying to find different budgets and money lines we can draw money from, but it is tight because now we’re at zero,” she added.

Although the GSA is still waiting to hear back from Carleton University officials as to whether they might get more money for emergency grants, the association’s peer support co-ordinator is still offering support for students with mental health concerns.

While government aid is being put in place for those who have lost jobs due to COVID-19, Lonergan said graduate students may not meet the criteria.

“You have to work so many hours and have lost your job, so graduate students really fall through the cracks of government aid at this time,” she said. 

Lonergan also said support of the petition has been especially strong from international graduate students who have more on the line this summer.

“Their employment is really tied to the university and their status in the country is also tied to being enrolled at Carleton,” Lonergan said.

“They really need to pay tuition in order to have any job opportunities and to stay in the country, and their tuition is often almost double what the amount domestic tuition is,” she added.

According to the Carleton Central fee calculator, an international student can pay as much as $6,059 more in tuition per term than their domestic counterparts for the exact same program and services. 

International students face additional struggles in light of COVID-19 due to higher tuition fees and status in the country being tied to enrolment. [Photo from file]
Woods said the lack of student funds could even affect summer enrolment.

“If they don’t have partial refunds for the winter semester, and they don’t have refunds for the summer semester, then how are they going to pay to be enrolled and have a TAship and pay to be a student?” she said.

“Further financial strains [could lead] to lowered enrolment, which is something that [university officials] don’t want,” she added.

On March 31, the GSA met with the dean of the faculty of graduate and postdoctoral affairs, Patrice Smith, in an effort to openly discuss tuition fee concerns. 

Smith brought the petition to the attention of higher university officials who will be meeting with administrators from other Ontario universities in the coming days to reach a consensus on summer 2020 tuition fees. 

“Winter partial refund—they said that they’re unsure that can be done,” Woods, who attended the meeting, said of university officials. “But, some type of summer refund, not a full refund, but some kind of refund is a ‘hopeful possibility’—though I’m not sure what ‘hopeful possibility’ means.”

“It looks like the administration is sort of trying to take the position of not breaking new ground and being the first university to come out and support this,” Lonergan said. 

“They seem to be really waiting to see what the province sort of collectively decides at this meeting sometime this week, which is sort of unfortunate,” she added. 

Since creating the petition, Lonergan said she has been in contact with graduate students from other universities such as Queen’s, Laurier, the University of Ottawa, McMaster, and York to urge them to start their own campaigns to advocate against full summer 2020 tuition.

So far, Lonergan said Queen’s and the University of Ottawa have begun a letter-writing campaign to make their voices heard. 

Other Ontario university students have also begun letter-writing campaigns to advocate for reduced summer 2020 tuition fees. [Photo from file]
Although Carleton University acknowledged conversations are happening about partial refunds, communications officer Steven Reid said it is too early for conclusions.

“Carleton is meeting with various stakeholders to gather a range of perspectives,” Reid said in an email. “However, no firm decisions have been made and it is too early to discuss possible outcomes.” 

“We expect to provide our students with more information in the coming days,” he added.

Until a decision is made, all 4,050 graduate students, 810 contract instructors, and 1,823 graduate teaching assistants at Carleton University, as listed on the university’s website, will be counting their coins.

Featured image by Jillian Piper.

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