Students in Ottawa took to the streets to protest the provincial government’s latest changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP).
On Jan. 17, the Ontario government announced major changes to tuition and OSAP programs which included removing the free tuition program for low-income students and the six-month interest-free grace period for loan repayment, and implementing a 10 per cent tuition reduction.
About 100 students and supporters gathered at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin Street to protest these changes.
David Piccini, parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, said the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party promised residents of Ontario to make life more affordable and the announcement was an extension of that affordability to students.
“The 10 per cent tuition reduction across the board is not only historic . . . it provided much needed relief,” he said.
Piccini added that these changes are a direct result of what students want.
However, it appeared students at Ottawa’s protests expressed the opposite through signs that said, “Give Back our Grants,” and Doug Ford Hates the Poor.”
Carolyn Simon, a second-year social work student at Carleton University and rally organizer, said she relies “pretty heavily” on OSAP.
“The last thing I need is to be $30,000 in [debt] coming out of school,” she said.
Multi-partisan reactions
Joel Harden, the New Democratic Party’s MPP of Ottawa Centre, told the Charlatan that these changes were not presented in the legislature or debated.
“We were caught blindsided like everybody else,” he said. “If the government wants to engage in monumental changes in how universities are funded, it needs to be public about it.”
Under the new changes, the typical arts and science degree student will save $660 in tuition fees and a Carleton engineering student would save $1,120.
As a contract instructor in Carleton’s law department, Harden said he knows from experience that these cuts would mean more workload for contract professors.
“I don’t think that necessarily means lower quality [education] for students,” he said. “But, it certainly means being paid a lot less for doing the exact same work as tenured professors.”
Mitzie Hunter, Liberal MPP of Scarborough-Guildwood, said she doesn’t agree with the changes and added that OSAP programs are an investment in the skills of Ontarians.
“One of the aspects that makes Ontario highly competitive . . . is that we’ve invested in education, in what we call a highly skilled workforce,” she said. “It’s a bit short-sighted to say that you’re going to remove a billion dollars out of the post-secondary education system by cutting OSAP, by pulling out tuition revenues from colleges and universities—do you expect to get the same results?”
Warren Clarke, a third-year Carleton sociology PhD student, described the changes as “disheartening.”
Clarke said the initiative is not well thought out and is made to cater a more middle-class to upper-middle class demographic within Ontario, and that the initiative does not take into account the intersection of race, gender, and socio-economic background.
“There are people who are struggling in university right now, not only trying to pay for tuition but even trying to eat on a day-to-day basis,” he said.
Clarke said universities will now try to fill the gap by taking further steps or making cuts in other areas.
“It’s really important to be critically engaged on this topic because if we do have marginalized, racialized people who are going to be further oppressed by this, it can affect how they learn,” he said.
Opposing the opt-outs
The government also wants to save students money by creating an opt-out option of non-essential ancillary fees—health and safety related fees would remain mandatory.
Piccini said it would be up to the universities to decide which ancillary fees students pay would be considered “non-essential” and become optional.
Safina Vesuna, a fourth-year public affairs and policy management student at Carleton, said if students opt out, service centres on campus will no longer be able to afford the spaces required for their operations.
She said campus service centres, such as Carleton’s Womxn’s Centre, which gives out free condoms and feminine hygiene products, are already stretched thin.
“I had a conversation with people in the [Carleton University Students’ Association] office about how great it would be to have Plan B in the office, but to have that on a consistent flow for the amount of people that come in and ask for it, we wouldn’t be able to afford it without cutting so many other things,” said Vesuna.
But, Piccini said that students he spoke to “resented” having to pay for special interest groups “that have nothing to do with enriching their experience in university.”
“We’re empowering students, giving them the choice and letting students dictate what that sort of money is going to go towards,” he said.
Students have also criticized the government’s decision to remove the interest-free grace period of six months after graduation.
Harar Hall, the Womxn’s Centre programming coordinator and a fourth-year global and international studies student, said what the government has done is simplify aspects of OSAP that “has managed to generalize people in the most harmful way; which is basically based on net income and not anything else.”
She said the removal of this period is “the worst thing possible,” and something that really upsets her as she’s set to graduate soon.
Piccini said the grace period will affect students who are graduating in the 2019-2020 academic year.
However, he stressed that students who are making less than $25,000 a year after graduation can still apply for the Repayment Assistance Plan which offers interest relief— the goal is to have students who are able to repay their loans to start doing so.
Clarke said after he finished his undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph, he was unable to find employment related to his degree close to seven months after graduation and said the removal of the grace period is “devastating.”
“The approach they’re taking is that once you finish school you automatically transition to a job, that’s not the reality,” he said.
Students across the province are organizing a province-wide walkout on Feb. 4. in protest of these changes.
— With files from Graham Swaney and Karen-Luz Sison
