Re: “Board of Governors report says tuition must rise annually” March 26-April 1
In the March 26-April 1 issue of the Charlatan, various student leaders were interviewed about their views on a recent report released by the university.
This report was written by the “Task Force on the Affordability of the Tuition-fee Framework.” The task force was created to find alternative ways of financing the university without raising our tuition fees and was created last year due to lobbying efforts from the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) and the undergraduate Carleton University Student Action Movement. This committee is largely made up of university staff, with only a handful of student representatives.
Instead of following through with the mandate of the committee—to explore ways to mitigate the impact of tuition increases—it actually managed to contradict itself.
This “task force,” despite persistent push-back from student representatives, boldly concluded the university needs to raise tuition the same amount we’ve been raising it the past few years.
The article published in the Charlatan interviewed a few different student leaders to get their reaction to this report. The executives of the GSA responded immediately and critically to the report, releasing a thorough policy review and an open letter. The policy review looks at other universities in Ontario and even includes figures from Carleton’s own audited financial statements.
If you read the GSA’s criticism of this report it notes that Carleton actually has registered $289 million in excess revenue for the 2013-14 fiscal year. If you crunch the numbers, it is clear there is enough money to avoid a tuition-fee increase without bankrupting the university.
The response from our undergraduate leaders was lukewarm at best, and offensive at worst.
Folarin Odunayo, president of the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), apparently disagreed with the report, but at the same time he was paraphrased by the Charlatan as saying “the work done by the task force cannot be disputed . . . some of the information the GSA provided on its website is clouding the general argument for lowering tuition.”
Instead of doubling down and criticizing the university administration for wanting to raise tuition, Odunayo took an opportunity to attack the GSA and undermine student unity.
In spite of that, still most concerning were comments made by Maddy Porter, CUSA’s current vice-president (student issues).
She was quoted as saying, “We need to show essentially that we are working really hard to find other ways to finance our education and that we are not lazy students.”
Of course students aren’t lazy. Instead of trying to explain this fact, she should instead be organizing for a solution to high tuition.
Students who struggle to pay their tuition are not lazy. Students who work two jobs for minimum wage just to scrape by are not lazy. Porter is supposed to represent the undergraduate population and fight for our interests and rights. It’s her job to organize and run campaigns that are in the best interest for students. Despite this, there has not been a single public campaign from our student association to combat rising tuition fees.
Now that this task force has failed to find a solution to rising tuition fees, student action may be necessary.
