Next year Carleton wants $22.50 per student, per semester, to expand wireless coverage on campus.
It would not be charged through tuition, but as a non-optional ancillary fee like athletics and health services.
Ancillary fees cover services not normally supported by a university’s operating budget that are considered non-vital to education.
These fees are being used as a way to dodge the Ontario government’s tuition cap, but ultimately students still end up paying universities more.
While universities may not be receiving the funding they need from the provincial government, students are already struggling to pay tuition fees—something evident by how many students need loans, grants, and scholarships.
Computing services—including wireless Internet—are a regular part of Carleton’s budget, and by extension, tuition fees.
Most students use wireless, especially in class. CuLearn and cuMail are mandatory and can often be vital to lectures. When professors now ask you to look at the syllabus, they expect you to find it online and no longer give you printed copies.
So how can wireless be considered non-essential to education?
There are rules governing ancillary fees, but much of how they’re spent is up to the administration’s discretion. If Carleton plans on taking even more money from students, students should have a say in how that money is spent.
