Campus Safety officers guarded the entrance to the Carleton Board of Governors’ (BoG) final meeting of the 2014-15 academic year, only allowing board members into the meeting room.
Members of the Carleton community, including Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) president-elect Fahd Alhattab, Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) president-elect Michael Bueckert, and the Charlatan, were not allowed entry to the public meeting.
Board members discussed the Task Force Committee’s report in the meeting, which concluded there are no economically feasible alternatives to raising tuition. The report was tabled in the March BoG meeting, which was shut down after student protestors inside and outside the room chanted and threw snowballs.
The meeting also featured Carleton’s vice-president (finance and administration) Duncan Watt’s presentation of the 2015-16 operating budget and the approval of the student referendas of the 2014-15 school year.
Heavy security presence outside River Building meeting room
Campus Safety had a presence outside the public meeting and barred entry to any spectators who were not members of the board. Board members were not allowed to bring guests to the meeting, which is usually open to the public.
Students who wished to enter the meeting were given a notice stating the meeting would be live-streamed in Southam Hall.
Watt said students were barred entry due to the cancellation of the last board meeting on March 30 after students protested inside the meeting room.
“The board wanted to be assured that it could conduct its business,” Watt said.
Report says tuition fees must increase from year to year
The Task Force on the Affordability of the Tuition-Fee Framework’s report, which after research concluded there are no feasible alternatives to rising tuition fees, was approved by members of the board at the April meeting.
Board members briefly discussed the report in March, but discussions were postponed due to the cancellation of their meeting.
GSA president Christina Muehlberger presented an argument against the Task Force’s report in the beginning of the April meeting, saying the report blames students and their families for their financial hardships.
“The task force has failed to present a convincing case for tuition increase,” Muehlberger said. She added the report did not include students’ voices.
Watt disagreed with Muehlberger’s comments and said the information provided by the GSA about the report is inaccurate.
“There were two graduate students that were on the Task Force committee appointed by the GSA,” Watt said later in an interview. “For the GSA to say they did not have an opportunity [to participate] is totally inaccurate.”
Watt added the report does not blame students for their financial hardships, but it states the system is very complex and that it is hard for incoming students and their parents to understand all of the funding available to them.
“[The report] says that the university needs to do a better job of communicating the various types of funding support that are available,” Watt said.
Budget outlines tuition fee increases
Later in the meeting, Watt presented Carleton’s $414 million operating budget for the 2015-16 academic year. Tuition fees now account for 56 per cent of the university’s revenue.
In his presentation, Watt said tuition is projected to increase by three per cent each year for domestic undergraduate students until the year 2021. International undergraduate tuition fees are increasing by eight per cent from last year in 2015-16.
Most of the upper-year graduate fees will be frozen for the upcoming year.
Money set aside for student financial support increased to $2.4 million. Watt said this money will be used for student scholarships and bursaries.
Michael MacNeil, a board member, presented a motion that would require 50 per cent of the 2015-16 budget’s revenue be allocated for increasing student bursaries.
Several board members shut down the motion including Carleton president Roseann Runte, who said “it might be a wise thing to hold this thought off” due to any unprojected expenses that may come up at the end of the 2015-16 year.
Watt said although the board would like to increase the funding for student bursaries, MacNeil’s motion was not the way to do it.
“We’re already spending around $60 million on student support, we’re already spending $200 million on faculty salaries—we spend money on lots of things,” Watt said.
“To decide now on how we will spend a surplus 18 months from now . . . We should look at all the various activities we have that we support and decide what’s best for the university,” he said.
CUSA president Folarin Odunayo said communication between the board and students needs to improve to foster better understanding of university finances and bursary funds.
“There is a lot of misinformation out there about how the board operates and where funds go,” he said. “A big one we all hear is that Carleton has a $60 million surplus, which on paper is accurate, but a lot of things happen to the surplus and a lot of funds are allocated to different things.”
Odunayo added he was pleased the motion was put forward and was happy it fostered discussion, but said it is important to consider tuition fees as a part of the larger framework of university operations.
“There’s so many aspects that go into the budget and running into the university, so we have to consider our concerns as a portion of the much larger picture,” he said.
