Sarah O'Connor
The Silhouette

When I saw the "Stop You've Paid Enough" posters being put up around campus during Welcome Week I couldn't help but feel excited. Finally McMaster was going to do something about our ever-rising tuition rates, finally we were going to take a note from our Quebecois friends and protest for a freeze in our tuition, to stop the cost from rising at least for a few years. But upon looking on the McMaster Students Union website, I became disappointed.

Apparently we haven't paid enough for tuition, save for certain instances. The "Stop You've Paid Enough" page on the McMaster Students Union website is not a plan for protest or a plan of action to stop the rising tuition costs, it is a page for students to report unfair fees they may have inappropriately been charged with for a course.

The "Stop You've Paid Enough" campaign is a good thing. I imagine there are a good number of students at McMaster who have been charged inappropriately for certain courseware, textbooks, supplies and field-trip costs. I hope these students are successful in getting some kind of return, though I imagine it will be difficult for a fourth year student to prove that they were charged with one of these unfair fees in their first year.

I understand why the McMaster Students Union advertised this way; it works in getting the attention of fools like me who actually expected some sort of change in tuition rates. If anything I now know that the rising cost of tuition is the furthest thing from the MSU's mind, making banners that allude to change only to call out a certain percentage of students who have been charged with unfair fees. There is no talk of freezing tuition rates, no mention of how much your tuition rose, there is no talk of change.

During the 2013/2014 academic year Ontario undergraduate students paid the highest average fee of $7,259 with Saskatchewan close behind while Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador undergraduate students continue to have the lowest average fees in Canada.

I wonder why Ontario undergraduates don't listen to the Quebec undergraduates and protest for a tuition freeze. What is it that makes us so different? What makes student unions in Quebec different than student unions in Ontario? That one union can protest and win while the other accepts the forever growing debt we will be stuck with at the end of our academic life.

So yes, having the McMaster Student's Union ready to help students who have been given unfair fees in previous or current classes is a good thing. But don't advertise like a dramatic change is being made, don't make us believe that you might actually be doing something about our tuition rate.

We, the students of McMaster, have paid enough for tuition, but not in the eyes of our union. And I don't know how long it will take before they realize that we really have paid enough.

The provincial government announced a new tuition framework last Thursday that allows Ontario universities to increase tuition fees by an average of 3 per cent starting this year.

Though the number is down from the previous framework’s 5 per cent allowance, groups including OUSA, CFS-Ontario and the MSU aren’t satisfied with any increases above inflation.

“It is disappointing that the provincial government has not tied tuition to a more fundamentally fair rate of inflation,” said Huzaifa Saeed, VP (education) of the MSU in a release.

“However, I respect the fact that the old framework was not continued, despite pressure from academic institutions to do just that.”

The new tuition framework will be in place for four years, and the 3 per cent limit on tuition increases applies to most full-time arts and science and college programs. The increase is above Ontario’s average rate of inflation, which is 2 per cent over 10 years.

Tuition for professional and graduate university programs and high-demand college programs are allowed to increase by up to 5 per cent, down from 8 per cent.

According to Saeed, the MSU will now divert its efforts to lobbying for more government investment in the financial aid system. Specifically, the MSU will advocate for eligibility expansion for the 30 off tuition grant and a lower debt cap on the Ontario Student Opportunity Grant.

In a statement responding to the Province’s announcement, OUSA says the new framework “makes progress” toward a more affordable system but has not adopted key recommendations made by students.

OUSA recommended last fall that the government freeze tuition for at least a year and increase per-student funding at the rate of inflation.

CFS-Ontario recommended this past February that tuition fees be reduced by 30 per cent over the next three years.

Ronald Leung / Silhouette Staff

Police crackdown on renewed Quebec student movement

Last spring was marked by massive student protests marching against the Liberal $1,625 tuition hike, numbering over 200,000 people including Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois.  This year, with Marois at the helm implementing a five year $70 indexation, students took to the streets once more – and were quickly shut down by police just 10 minutes into the Montreal protest. Over 200 people were arrested and fined. Student protesters noted the heavy-handed change in tactics and worry about the fear these actions will cast on potential supporters.

Threat of probation looms over University of Saskatchewan medical school

A small team of inspectors has returned to the University of Saskatchewan after the College of Medicine was told two years ago that it was at risk of losing accreditation if it did not restructure its operations. Ten infractions were outlined: overall lack of structure, unclear professor responsibilities, decentralized student reviews, a delay in reporting students’ final marks, informal student review procedures, and insufficient study space. College faculty and university administration have been working on sweeping plans for the school of medicine.

University of Regina refugee students await Minister verdict for amnesty

Two Nigerian students from the University of Regina have been anxiously staying at a church while their lawyer, Kay Adebhogun, works to keep their cause as a priority for government officials. Both students also worked at the local Walmart in Regina, but when realising that they did not have the appropriate SIN number or a work permit respectively, they both left their jobs only to be arrested by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). The students originally received full scholarships from the Nigerian government.

SAIT student holds record for world’s largest chess set

A student from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) holds a Guinness World record with his father for the largest chess set. Secured in 2009, the giant set currently is in Medicine Hat, Alta. Ken Taylor explains that his father, Bill Taylor, received inspiration in 2004 when he saw a large chess set in Austria. Bill’s enthusiasm quickly caught on with Ken and they built the set together. The father and son received commemoration from the provincial government. The king is the largest piece at 3’ 11” tall, weighing 35 lbs.

Ryerson engineering under criticism for “initiation” ritual

Students in Ryerson’s faculty of Engineering are facing potential disciplinary action for running an “initiation” ritual that involved scantily-clad students crawling through slush in downtown Toronto. The controversy was sparked when a YouTube video of the annual event surfaced. Ryerson president Sheldon Levy has called the event “completely unacceptable” and not representative of the “positive and supportive culture of Ryerson.” The Ryerson Engineering Students Society (RESS) and other students involved in the “swim,” which is meant as a team-building activity for frosh week leaders, contend that it was not a hazing ritual, but was all in the spirit of fun.

In a white paper released earlier this month, the Ontario Progressive Conservatives took aim at the Ontario Liberal government’s “30% Off Ontario Tuition” grant, among other initiatives in the post-secondary sector.

A chief concern that has been raised about the grant is that only about 200,000 students received it last year. That is about two-thirds of eligible students and one-third of all post-secondary students.

To give students more time to apply this year, the deadline was extended from the end of January to Friday, March 1.

Launched in 2012, the grant offers 30 per cent off the average tuition for university and college to lower-middle income students. The Ontario government has set aside about $400 million for the program per year.

It is estimated that 300,000 students are eligible for the grant. However, many students are either unaware that it exists, or unaware that they do not need to receive OSAP in order to apply for the grant.

The PCs “Higher Learning for Better Jobs” paper argues that the Ontario Liberals have been spending public money on the program to “fix a problem that doesn’t exist.”

“The Ontario Tuition Grant can thus simply be summed as an idea sold as a benefit to all students, when only a fraction receive it,” reads the paper.

In lieu of the grant, universities and colleges should be “empowered to administer a student financial aid system that grows as tuition increases,” according to the PCs.

The paper also cites a briefing note from the Canadian Federation of Students: “Students are concerned that the Liberal tuition fee grant excludes two-thirds of students in Ontario.”

Ontario’s new Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, Brad Duguid, said axing the program is “unacceptable” and expressed concerns about a two-tiered education system.

“We think that is economically irresponsible, and I consider it to be socially reprehensible,” said Duguid.

He added that the PCs’ proposal to end the grant could have repercussions for several groups, including lower-income students, aboriginal students, student-athletes and students with disabilities.

Duguid took over from MPP John Milloy earlier this February.

Duguid confirmed that the number of students who have received the 30 off grant so far this year surpassed last year’s number.

The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) supports the 30 off grant, but has recommended that the Ministry expand eligibility requirements and change the tuition framework.

OUSA has argued that adjusting the grant to inflation is not enough, since tuition rates are rising at a faster rate than inflation.

“In nine years, though the value of the grant will grow to over $2,000 annually per-student, eligible students will be paying exactly what they pay today,” according to an OUSA policy paper released in 2012.

“I understand the concern, but we haven’t set the tuition framework yet for the next number of years,” said Duguid. “I’ll certainly be taking the students’ views under consideration as we work with post-secondary institutions as well to set an acceptable tuition rate.”

Duguid said a new tuition framework would be announced “fairly soon.”

“As a new minister, I want to reach out a little more before we make any final decisions,” he said.

Nichole Fanara / The Silhouette

Thank you journalism! Thank you for being an inquiring body, thank you for following leads, and thank you for fearlessly publishing controversial topics that will now result in justice for thousands of part-time students!

No thank you to McMaster University for not properly giving a shit about their student’s financial burden.

Anything that has “McMaster” right in the name generally comes back around to the University.  I would think that an institution that demands thousands of dollars from its students would bat an eyelash when a student-run government has used its name in vain, and stolen thousands more from their students.

Who is ultimately responsible?

MAPS, the part-time student run governing body (much like the MSU for full-time students) was recently hit with a financial inquiry that found their president and exec team stealing money from their society and feeding themselves inflated salaries, trips to Europe, and expensive and unnecessary luxuries.

The most interesting part to this story is that this went unnoticed by students and McMaster for YEARS. And their president used to be a president for the MSU only a few short years before. Think about that before you vote this time around.

There are two things that bother me most about student governments funded by students. The first is the supplementary fees that we are forced to pay for through our tuition. With no opt-out option, how is this fair for students who do not wish to be a part of the union? Sure, we could debate that the union is here to help us and in our best interest, but that aside, students deserve a choice. If a student doesn’t want to pay for it they shouldn’t have to - this is not a tax.  But there is a lot of money involved here. What if I don’t agree with what the MSU is doing? What if I don’t use the facilities, don’t care, or just would like the healthy democratic option to opt-out and save a couple hundred dollars on my tuition?

My second issue is this - how has it become so easy for presidents and exec members to steal money from McMaster students? And why? What is it about our system that makes these sticky fingers so easily satisfied? I don’t think any of us have the answers right now, but I do know that this is more than a moral issue. McMaster should not make it this easy to for her students to suffer financial burdens by the hands of its own.  If there is no opt-out option for a fee that costs students hundreds of dollars, than McMaster herself needs to oversee what and where this money is going.

I want to know what exactly it is that I am paying for, and why.  If there is nothing to hide, then the answers to these questions should be accessible.

Let’s not allow another president to pick our pockets.

Northern students, student with disabilities, and finance on the agenda

From Nov. 2-4 the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) held their biannual General Assembly in Waterloo, Ont. McMaster sent seven delegates, including MSU VP Education Huzaifa Saeed and MSU President Siobhan Stewart.

OUSA, McMaster’s educational lobbying body,of which the McMaster Student Union is a paying member, has been in the spotlight of late for endorsing a province-wide tuition freeze. They argue that continued tuition increases will not fix province-wide funding issues; rather, it will exacerbate the problem, causing students to use higher amounts of provincial loans and grants.

Beyond the direct financial implications, OUSA has argued that continued tuition increases will make PSE less accessible to low and middle-income groups and will threaten youth employability.

The General Assembly aimed to develop OUSA’s priorities for the next year. The focus areas at the Waterloo conference were Northern and Rural Students, Students with Disabilities,and Student Financial Aid.

All three focus areas were concerned with how to strengthen infrastructure and remove financial barriers for students by lobbying the provincial government. Affordability and financial assistance for students were recurring themes throughout the conference papers.

The plenary policy paper on Rural and Northern Students makes recommendations on how the provincial government can improve accessibility and participation of rural and northern students in post-secondary education (PSE).

The paper specifically defines a student as a Northern or Rural Student if they live in Thunder Bay, Cochrane, Algoma, Sudbury, Timiskaming, Nipissing, Manitoulin or Parry Sound.

The report discusses how these young people struggle to attend post-secondary institutions. If these students are able to access PSE, they often go on to incur sizeable travel and commuting costs.

Currently, the provincial government provides $500 per term to students commuting to a campus 80 kilometers or more from their home. For students who are living away from home, they offer $300 per term, provided that the student’s permanent home address is 80 kilometers or more from a campus.

Northern students also typically borrow at higher rates, using on average $7,496 in government loans, compared to the provincial average of $6,601.

Students with disabilities also represent another group that disproportionately shoulders the burden of high costs associated with PSE.

The Students with Disabilities policy paper emphasized how financial assistance is difficult for students with disabilities to access. It specifically noted how students with disabilities are often unable to meet OSAP requirements and funding is occasionally off-limits for students who are only part-time students or who have temporary disabilities.

The Financial Assistance policy paper re-affirms OUSA’s position on tuition increases in Ontario. More specifically, it advocates for wide-sweeping changes to OSAP including removing ineligibilities and updating the loan structure.

OSAP is currently capped at $12,240 (for a two-term academic year). OUSA has argued that this limit does not adequately help students, and forces students to take out private loans, seek additional employment or, in the worst-case, drop out of school. The organization has recommended that if tuition increases it should be by no more than the inflation rate (calculated by the Ontario Consumer Price Index).

Shivani Persad, one of the McMaster delegates and the McMaster Advocacy Street Team Coordinator, hopes to plan events back on campus that promote current policies being advocated by OUSA. Persad explained that the team will be promoting part of the larger OUSA-run mental health campaign, which will encompass some discussion on students with disabilities.

OUSA, and other student organizations such as the Canadian Federation of Students, continue to advocate for reductions or freezes to tuition. In the next semester, OUSA will discuss issues regarding Public-Private Partnerships and Online Learning.

 

V: As a fourth year student, I have come to love and dread OSAP. For an independently funded student, OSAP is the only way I am able to stay in school. I have worked part time for years but it does not pay all the bills at the end of the day. Every year, with a steady increase of around 5 percent to my tuition, I find myself acquiring more and more debt. 5 percent does not sound like much but it comes out to roughly $500 every year. Ontario once adopted a two-year tuition freeze between 2004 and 2006.

In 2006, the average university tuition for an undergraduate degree was about $5,000. My tuition costs roughly $6,600 today.

As you can see, there has been a steady but painful increase in fees. Maybe it is time to have another tuition freeze.

 

D: At first I thought, “Why don’t we already adopt this motion?” Quebec has had a tuition freeze for as long as I can remember. I always wondered how the Province of Quebec was able to afford such an initiative. Federal Transfers and Equalizers, as they are called, is the reallocation of Provincial revenues to different Provinces to ensure sustainable budgets. Ottawa reallocates 15 billion dollars a year of other Provinces’ revenues to Quebec. Granted, Ontario also benefits from this program.

My point is that we all share into the expensive initiative that is a ‘tuition freeze’. If a tuition freeze were to occur in Ontario, the plan would cost $110 million to implement in its first year, $195 million in the second, $280 million in the third and $365 million in four years time.

Since no party would ever consider a tax increase in the midst of the Premier leaving office, I would have to assume that the money that would be needed would come at the cost of social services, the arts, and other important facets of society. I don’t think I can watch another social service risk drastic funding cuts.
V: The assumption that I made is grounded strongly in the evidence that has been presented over the last few decades; when the going gets tough, the services get cut. However, the only way this assumption could fail is if the economic prosperity improves as a result of this tuition freeze.

“With the fastest growing tuition in the country and poor performance in the student summer job market, the province must act quickly to address the concern that higher education is becoming increasingly inaccessible for Ontario families,” commented Alysha Li, President of OUSA.

As is consistent with my experience, along with thousands of my peers - as tuition costs increase, the need for more student financial assistant increases with it.

Furthermore, as tuition costs begin to increase and outpace inflation rates, the number of individuals who find that education is becoming inaccessible is also increasing. These potential students cannot then engage themselves in the competitive market places of our economy and find meaningful employment. This is just as problematic as having social services, and other funding, cuts.

 

D: But is a tuition freeze the solution?

As much as I do not always align my interests with the Liberals, I did appreciate the 30 percent grant that was available to me, and many other students, whose families make an annual income of less than $160,000.

I feel as though this is a very accessible grant that many students have benefited from over the last year.

This initiative has cost the Province the same amount a tuition freeze would.

I would argue that this initiative has been better on the basis of accessibility, practicality and the direct financial benefit to students. Furthermore, I think that this program should be expanded, not in terms of accessibility but rather, to relieve even more of the financial stress of students.

I would much rather see the money that would be needed to start or sustain a tuition freeze be put into this initiative.

 

D: At the end of the day, this is not an easy issue to debate. A simple issue has a clear-cut answer. A complicated issue has a difficult problem with a tested solution that requires attention. A complex issue is a very difficult problem with no clear answer or sufficiently tested solution.

Tuition costs are important to all of us.

We all must bear this burden in some way, whether that is through the support of parents, tiresome employment, federal grants and loans, et cetera.

What we all, and the thousands of students who protested in the streets of Montreal, can agree upon is that tuition costs are too damn high.

Event draws limited student participation

Ryan Sparrow

On Oct. 23, representatives from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) - Ontario, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) - Ontario, and McMaster faculty member, Peter Graefe, all spoke out against the purposed changes to the sector. Also on the panel was NDP politician, Theresa Armstrong who is the NDP critic for the Ministry of Training, Colleges and University (MTCU).

The panel was organized by the NDP Riding Associations of Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale and Hamilton Centre. The event was attended by approximately 40 people.

Janice Folk-Dawson, Chair of the Ontario University Workers Coordination Committee of CUPE- Ontario criticized the Ministry’s plans and called “for the establishment of a true consultation process with wide ranging discussions including chronic underfunding to post-secondary institutions and a discussion of tuition and auxiliary fees.”

Peter Graefe, a Political Science professor, criticized the three semester a year plan stating, “As much as people think I’m at home sunbathing myself during those [summer] months, I’m here most days involved in work related to research.”

He also addressed the Ministry’s suggestion about three-year degrees, and said, “Three year degrees, is there a demand for that? We have been seeing three year degrees shut down across the province for a lack of demand for a variety of reasons.”

“When we talk about scarce public resources we have to realise that it is a myth, the income tax for people making over 500,000 dollars was introduced and next thing you know we got an extra 500 million in revenue” said Mike Yam, CFS-Ontario researcher.

“I know a lot of labour unions and progressive economists talk about reversing corporate tax cuts; for sure if they were back to 2009 levels we’d have an extra two billion plus dollars in government coffers that could provide for all undergraduates in Ontario to go to school for free.”

Theresa Armstrong, the NDP Critic for MTCU, gave a uniformly scripted speech, which provided little insight into the Ontario New Democrat’s plans outside of re-stating their election promises.

Dan Fahey, a third-year Integrated Science student, felt upset with the lack of a comprehensive vision presented by the NDP stating that he, “felt underwhelmed by Theresa Armstrong’s performance, when the stakes are so high with the attack to education that we are facing.”

“I thought Mike Yam said the right things. That we need to build solidarity between students and staff on campus and it’s going to take a lot of work.”

 

Student and faculty groups in Ontario don’t like what the government has in store for the future of post-secondary education.

In response to a recent discussion paper by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU), several groups say they do not agree with Minister Glen Murray’s proposed reforms.

Key issues raised by student leaders include government intrusion in post-secondary education, tuition hikes, a rapid shift toward technology-based education and incentivization of entrepreneurial learning.

The Canadian Federation of Students - Ontario (CFS Ontario) and the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) are among those concerned about a perceived ‘unprecedented intrusion’ of government in the post-secondary sector.

“People who are in the best position to determine what's best for students are students themselves, faculty members and university administrators,” said Graeme Stewart, communications manager at OCUFA. “We want to keep decision-making power with [those parties].”

The MTCU’s discussion paper, entitled “Strengthening Ontario’s Centres of Creativity, Innovation and Knowledge” was drafted this past summer. To the dismay of student leaders, the paper was written without student consultation and publicized in late August during the back-to-school rush.

The paper comes on the heels of a controversial leaked policy paper in February, tentatively entitled "3 Cubed." The leaked document suggested that universities should increase efficiency by offering more three-year degrees and allowing students to get more than half their credits online.

MTCU’s recent summer discussion paper acknowledges a rapidly changing post-secondary education sector and the need for Ontario institutions to respond.

Though the proposal outwardly rejects efficiency-focused strategies to curb costs, it also aligns itself with the trend of "high quality outcome-based credentials" becoming the norm.

The report says “cost reductions and the elimination of redundancies are essential parts of our government’s fiscal plan,” but these are not enough to meet the fiscal challenges.

In the long term, the Ministry sees “adopting innovation in the sector to drive productivity” as the other half of the equation.

One proposed reform, a simpler credit transfer system, has already been implemented in a recent partnership between seven universities and has generally been well received.

“Credit transfer, online learning, different experiential options - these are all good things. Our concern is that the government seems to be saying: we’re going to tell you what to do, when to use online learning, when to use learning technologies, when to do co-op,” said Stewart.

There are several shared concerns put forward by CFS Ontario and OCUFA, showing overlap between student and faculty reactions to the Ministry's proposal.

 

Underfunded Ontario PSE sector

Respondents pointed to the fact that Ontario’s post-secondary sector is the least funded in the nation. Per-student funding currently stands at $8,349, which is 34 per cent below the national average, according to a 2011 Statistics Canada report.

“The underfunding problem is decades old in Ontario,” said Stewart, who cited Ontario’s per-student funding as the primary reason for a higher student-faculty ratio.

By 2009, Ontario’s ratio of students to full-time faculty was nearly seven per cent higher than the national average, according to a separate report by Stats Canada. Today, there are roughly 27 students for every professor in Ontario.

“This means students can’t have the same face-to-face interaction, professors aren’t as available, students find themselves in larger classes and they have fewer course choices. It also means universities don’t have the money to restore their older buildings,” said Stewart.

 

Higher rate of tuition increase

“When the government allows per-student funding to decrease, that puts pressure on institutions to increase tuition fees because they have to replace that revenue,” said Stewart.

This year, tuition fees across the nation have risen at more than three times the rate of inflation. Student and faculty representatives argue that this would create a more elite system and diminish accessibility to higher education.

“I don’t think we can say that right now, or even a couple of years ago, tuition fees were at the right place and we should increase rates with inflation,” said Sarah Jayne King, chairperson of CFS Ontario.

“Tuition fees are beyond the point where we can simply freeze them and be happy with that," said King.

CFS Ontario has drafted two tuition fee proposals for the most recent provincial budget that would have tuition fees reduced immediately by 25 per cent.

 

Emphasis on performance-based funding and incentivization

CFS Ontario criticized the proposal’s emphasis on ‘entrepreneurial learning’ and the practice of subsidizing private sector research via the post-secondary education system.

In their response, CFS Ontario asserts that “promoting the creation of business incubators or incentivizing entrepreneurial education in the province’s public colleges and universities does not facilitate knowledge, innovation or creativity.”

OCUFA similarly criticized the provincial government’s ‘performance funding’ model, saying it “makes quality improvement impossible” and unfairly punishes students.

“I don’t think the minister has a totally clear idea of what he wants yet, but our concern is that the recommendations in the paper tend to push the [post-secondary education] system toward this kind of labour market focus,” said Stewart.

 

Using technology as a cost-saving measure

“Students are concerned that online courses are going to be implemented as a cost-saving measure, when we know that to actually produce a high-quality online education is quite expensive,” said King.

There have been no concrete proposals put forward yet mandating that three out of five courses be online, said King, referring to the contents of the leaked ‘3 Cubed’ ministry document earlier this year.

However, she said there is continued concern among students that the education sector is headed in this direction.

 

The ministry asked that formal responses to the discussion paper be sent in by Sept. 30. Respondents include CFS (national), COPE, COU and OPSEU.

King and Stewart said they don’t know of any definitive timeline for a response from the Ministry, but representatives continue to be open to discussions with the government while awaiting a follow-up.