Since being elected into office last May, the current Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) executives have begun working towards defederating from the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). According to the executives of One Carleton, CUSA’s current incumbent slate, CUSA can provide better services and better combat rising tuition fees with the money that would otherwise go to the allegedly inefficient and morally corrupt CFS. The logic put forth by the current executives would be compelling if it was not for how vital the CFS has been in lobbying with university administrations to lower tuition fees in Ontario and elsewhere.
The CFS is the only student movement that has been successful in helping reduce the debt burden that so many students face on a yearly basis. By showing opposition to the CFS for the past several years, past and present CUSA executives have assisted in the continual rise of Carleton’s tuition fees.
It is important to highlight how Carleton decides on raising or lowering tuition fees before explaining how the CFS wins its battles. The Board of Governors (BoG) is a 32-member body, consisting of individuals within the university administration, staff members, the community-at-large, alumni, and current graduate and undergraduate students. Each year, the BoG decides, among other things, whether to raise or lower tuition fees. Last year, the Board voted in favor of raising tuition by three per cent for domestic students and by eight per cent for international students for both 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years.
It should also be noted that Zameer Masjedee, the current CUSA president and undergraduate representative for the BoG, has plenty of experience within CUSA to know that approaches to fighting tuition that do not involve the CFS will continue to fail domestic and international students.
Last year, Masjedee served as vice president (student life) under Fahd Alhattab, the previous CUSA president who may be well-known for bizarrely abstaining on the BoG vote to raise tuition in the 2015-16 academic year. After receiving backlash for his decision from the undergraduate student body, Alhattab voted against raising tuition fees during his second presidential term in 2016-17. The motion to increase tuition fees passed regardless. The failed efforts of past student representatives on the BoG to meaningfully lower or freeze tuition fees illustrates the clear dishonesty of One Carleton’s claims regarding fighting on tuition fees.
In contrast to One Carleton’s misguided attempts to fight tuition fees, the CFS continues to be a proven to be a successful fighter in lowering the debt burden of students.
For example, after 15 years of keeping tuition rates frozen in Newfoundland, the CFS pressured the provincial government in 2014 to switch from a system of student loans to student grants. In Ontario, the CFS’ Ontario branch managed to halt the Ontario Liberal government from slashing post-secondary funding in response to the 2009 financial recession.
These are just two examples of the CFS’ successes. Despite its imperfections, the best way to fight the rising cost of tuition is not to distance ourselves from national and provincial organizations, but to bring their services and their work onto our campus. This will allow the CFS to use the full weight of its membership to fight for lower tuition fees we as students so desperately need.
Active, involved, and accountable advocacy is what Carleton students need. If the current executive team refuses to have an honest discussion on the CFS, One Carleton could be seen as merely pushing a hidden political agenda that will inevitably harm the wallets of Carleton students and families.
After years of consecutive tuition hikes by the Carleton administration, it is time to send a message that further raises in the cost of tuition shall not and will not be tolerated. For this message to be successful, it should, and must involve the CFS.
