brunswickannews Student Union launches advertising campaign to sway provincial government
2 • Feb. 23, 2011 • Issue 21 • Volume 144
Colin McPhail Editor-in-Chief The message is simple. If you want a strong, sustainable economy, keep investing in post-secondary education. That was the message being spread by both the UNB administration and student union alike as the lobbying effort to sway the provincial government away from PSE cuts continued last Friday. The UNBSU invited key members from the provincial government and the post-secondary sector to a presentation informing them on the situation. “We did it to continue fostering relationships with our local government MLAs,” said UNBSU president Shannon Carmont-McKinley. “We like to consider ourselves as thought leaders in the post-secondary sector and in order to follow through on that, we wanted the opportunity to educate the MLAs on what is actually a pretty complex system.” The presentation was built around the four cornerstones of the PSE debate: students, the budget, governments and universities and other domestic and international institutions. The SU president delivered a number of alarming statistics aiming to demonstrate not only the current fiscal woes the PSE sector is facing but also how significant investment could act as solution to some provincial hardships.
As the ministers of finance and postsecondary education, training and labour listened, Carmont-McKinley identified how New Brunswick currently has the second highest tuition costs and is ranked ninth in funding per PSE student in Canada. Statistics, Carmont-McKinley said, that need to be brought to the attention of the government and the public. “Those are things that the average person doesn’t know or don’t see and there’s a lot of misconception. There are a lot of preconceived notions about how it works without a lot of actual understanding.” One of the resounding points made was the fact 41 per cent of the federal income tax is paid by 23 per cent of the population. That portion of the population has one thing in common: a bachelor’s degree. “If we’re in a difficult economic time in the province, which we currently are, why aren’t we doing more to bring a higher percentage of our population into a higher level of income, so they’re able to put more money towards things like taxes,” said Carmont-McKinley. The SU president was appreciative of her audience and hopes the presentation doesn’t fall on deaf ears. She was pleased with the growing connection between the UNBSU and the provincial government. A connection that has been lacking in the early stages of the ministry, she said.
Carmont-McK inley asserts the student union will continue to pursue their two main goals, maintaining the tuition freeze and assuring universities have an adequate-sized operating grant, in the upcoming weeks. The student union has a number of plans to help achieve these goals set in place, said Andrés Fuentes, SU policy and research officer. The student union is scheduled, depending on change in the postsecondary climate, to unleash a series of online video and radio ads in the upcoming week and stage events in the city and on campus. The message behind the ads will simply echo their goals and the points made in the presentation. “[It’s] to highlight that ‘if you raise tuition, students are going elsewhere to study and they might not come back’,” said Fuentes. “What we’re looking for is a strong, sustainable economy. In order to do that, education is a clear building block.” Carmont-McKinley understands the difficulty in preparing a provincial budget in such a delicate fiscal environment, but remains resolute that significant investment will have positive effects in the long run. “It needs to be a long-term commitment. Stops and starts and gapsolutions put in place for a couple years at a time isn’t going to do anything.”
2nd
ranked province for highest tuition costs in Canada.
61
per cent of UNB’s operating budget comes from the provincial government.
15.2
per cent of comprehensive universities, UNB inclusive, pay more for tuition than primarily undergraduate institutions.
23
per cent of Canadians possess a bachelor’s degree.
41
per cent of federal income tax is paid by degree-holding Canadians.