Members of the Carleton community calling for the university to freeze tuition and lobby the provincial government for its reduction presented the university’s Board of Governors with 1,355 signed postcards at the last meeting of the board, March 27.
Ultimately, the board voted to raise tuition fees for the 2014-15 academic year. The average fee raise is three per cent for undergraduate students, five per cent for graduate students, and eight per cent for international students.
Sarah Cooper, an undergraduate student board member who presented the postcards, called for board members to vote against the raises, and to support a motion she brought to the meeting to lobby the provincial government.
“There’s a lot more that Carleton can be doing,” she said.
The board voted against the motion to freeze tuition fees. It was initially ruled out of order because it followed the motion to raise tuition fees, Cooper said, but was eventually brought to the table.
The board voted in favour of a motion to draft a letter addressed to all three major provincial parties calling for increased post-secondary funding.
The letter will be drafted and presented to the board’s next meeting for voting, she said.
Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) president Alexander Golovko said he voted against the tuition increase.
“The Carleton University Students’ Association and myself believe in universal access to education and innovative ways of giving our students the support they deserve,” he said via email.
For the 2013-14 academic year Golovko said he voted in favour of a budget that included a tuition increase because the university put the motions to pass the budget and to raise tuition together. The motions were separated for the 2014-15 year.
Postcards were available to sign across campus for six weeks, according to Sam Ponting, the GSA’s membership co-ordinator.
Ponting said the signatories were made up of mostly students, but also included faculty and staff.
The meeting included presentations by students and by Duncan Watt, Carleton’s vice-president (finance and administration), who put forward the tuition fee increase motion.
Ponting said board members’ took the tuition fee discussion seriously.
“It was clear from some of the board members in the room that they were open to listening about student hardship,” she said.
