Carleton’s Board of Governors (BoG) has announced it will be sending an open letter to Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne asking for more public funding for universities from the province.
Originally drafted by undergraduate board member Sarah Cooper in the spring of 2014, the letter has undergone a long process of re-writing to satisfy all parties involved: the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA), the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), the BoG, and president Roseann Runte.
The final draft is a combined effort between the GSA, CUSA, and Runte, and was given the okay at a Jan. 29 BoG meeting.
It expresses the Board’s concern at the high level of students who graduate in debt—a statistic the letter places at 54 per cent—and many of these students are working part-time rather than focusing on their studies and on volunteering opportunities in order to fight that debt.
“The Province of Ontario certainly has the highest participation rate for post-secondary education in Canada,” the letter reads, “but the level of funding per student is lower than elsewhere. At the same time the tuition is the highest.”
The letter stresses that universities’ costs have gone up with inflation, but their funding hasn’t.
It also recognizes the plight of Carleton’s international students, whose tuition rates have risen recently, saying these higher fees are “reducing the attractiveness of Ontario” internationally.
Runte said the letter took longer than expected to complete because “many people were involved and because some of the students graduated and others were new to the board.”
The provincial election and summer holiday also slowed the process as the board doesn’t meet over summer.
“The board has a committee looking at the cost of education and funding,” Runte added in an email. “It will report later this semester.”
The GSA had originally included a passage that alluded to disproportionate hardship placed on racialized and marginalized students by higher tuition fees, as well as international students, although this was removed by Runte “as there did not seem to be proof.”
“Overall, the GSA is happy with the letter,” GSA president Christina Muehlberger said. “Though it does not address all the issues we hoped the letter would raise—particularly around tuition fees for international students—it does ask for a fully-funded reduction in tuition fees, which was the main goal.”
CUSA also had input on the letter, with president Folarin Odunayo saying he felt “honoured to be able sign the letter on behalf of the student association.”
“I did feel the weight of all 23,000 students when I was signing that,” he said. “We know it’s something we can’t fix overnight, but we also know it’s something you need to pay attention to.”
Odunayo said he is happy with the letter and he thinks it accomplishes its mandate.
“We need to make sure the province, the leaders, and our lawmakers understand that you have to make the education system more accessible and better because these are the people who will lead the nation in years to come, and I think that’s what we tried to accomplish with the letter,” he said.
While the letter isn’t perfect, Muehlberger said it’s “an important first step.” She stressed the letter meant Carleton has recognized the negative impact high tuition has on students, and that they acknowledged the importance of provincial funding over student fees.
She said she hopes it “will create a precedent for other student unions and allow them to more effectively pressure their Board of Governors to co-write similar letters.”
Odunayo agreed.
“I hope it resonates, but simply sending a letter is not the end of the story,” he said.
