IMPRLNT,
Friday,
April
3, 1998
3
NEWS
Tuition hikes demvstified University big wigs explain budget woes in tuition forum by Debbra McClintock Imprint staff
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n Thursday, March 26, the Federation of Students held an open forum in the Student Life Centre Great Hall to discuss the impending issues of tuition hikes and deregulation. Invited to present the institutional concerns were University President James Downey and Vice President Academic and Provost Jim Kalbfleisch. In an attempt to provide the gathering students with insight into the struggles everyone is currently facing, Downey noted that ‘LNew challenges, technology and change.. .has meant considerable stress [on professors],” and that the administrators have also felt hardships as they “respond to challenges of advocacy.” On that note, Downey ensures that progress will be seen in other areas affecting students in the next one to two years. The federal government has been striving to increase research funds and access to professors “on the cutting edge,” both of which our university will “compete well for.” Likewise, the federal government is making developments in the areaof student assistance. The upcoming Canada Opportunities Strategy will be distributing approximately 100,000 scholarships of up to $3,000 each to students across Canada. Canada student loans will also have longer payback periods and lessened remissions, among other improvements. With the progress putting us “almost at the state of support that students needed,” Downey emphasized the decline of operating grants available for the University. While no part of Canada has been given increases in direct support from any Provincial Government, Ontario’s support has been reduced the most, by 15.3 per cent. Fighting to persuade
the Government of Canada to assist the University more in it’s operating costs, Downey noted, “It’s not fair to ask students to pay more withour a commensurate commitment from the Government of Canada. . .that’s the argument they’re fighting for.” Again, Kalbfleisch stressed the lack of provincial support, insisting that the only option, for now, is to raise student tuition. Despite a 25 per cent reduction in aid from the provincial government over the past five years, tuition has increased from $41 to $59 million. Likewise, he notes, the operating budget for the university is $10 million less than it was five years ago and faculty and staff have faced reductions, In an attempt to lessen the impact, incoming frosh will receive a book detailing how to put together a budget, predict living and schooling costs, and where to get funds. There is also a task force currently addressing questions such as: What can we promise to new students about tuition and aid? Is it feasible to set tuition fees by program instead of by year? What criteria should be used in setting differential tuition fees for deregulated programs? One student pointed out that, students in the U.S. are presently getting out of debr sonner than their Canadian counterparts, making UW less attractive than American schools. When asked how the University can justify what the student called almost uncontrolled tuition increases in light of this, Downey pointed out that the quality of the credentials students can take frome Waterloo will not diminish. Caught between reduced public support and increased service demands, the only choice is to raise tuition. Downey continued to defend that there is nothing wrong with the University setting its own tuition fees, as other universities are already doing. “We can be as responsible to our students as the
Schreiter speaksout VP1has “no patienceleft for council” by Natalie Imprint
F
Gillis staff
ederation of Students Vice-President Internal Kurt Schreiter told Student’s Council this week that he has “absolutely no paitence left for council this year,” and that he would not be attending this Sunday’s last council meeting by way of protest. Schreiter later retracted his statement and decided to attend the meeting. “Not coming to council would be hypocritical,” he said, adding that he hadn’t explained the reasons for his protest clearly enough in the VP1 report.
“This is about conduct within council meetings and the conduct of counsellors and some of the [Federation] executives.” “AS counsellors and executives, we have a moral obligation. . .to stand up for things.” Schreiter also spoke of “finding solutions that will stand the test of time and not just need to be fixed in a year or two.” According to Schreiter, council hasn’t done this effectively over the last year. Many counsellors, he said, “haven’t taken on the full responsibilities of the job.” Schreiter declined further comment, urging students to attend the council meeting this Sunday, April 5, at noon in the
government in setting fees. If you’re going to deregulate, do so completely. Give freedom inscitution by institution, not program by program.” In response to other questions, the President and VicePresident stressed that they embrace tuition hikes only if they occur over time, in order to maintain quality and to ensure that the culture of the school will not be corrupted by the institution setting fees. In fact, President Downey assured, universities would see greater differentiation across institutions, as schools would specialize in their strengths, much like UW already does. He concluded that, “Over time, fees will increase no matter who does it. Unless the government puts more money into operating grants, I’d just as soon see the institutions take control.” When asked if there is any way to find money other than through increases, tuition Kalbfleisch stressed, “I don’t know any other resource that couldcompensate for the$6.5 million. I’ve looked, but there’s nothing.” Noting also that they’ve looked into offering programs not supported by the government, it has been decided that their focus will remain on education and research. “TO offer unrelated businesses would be the wrong thing to do.” In response to concerns regarding the deregulation of the
Co-op program and the impact that will have on fees, Kalbfleisch said he doesn’t know yet which programs will be deregulated. Programs like Accounting, Engineering and Optometry will most likely be, but the fate of programs with no direct business connection, such as Computer Science, is not yet clear. Kalbfleisch guessed that Co-op will not likely
not be deregulated, but the programs will. On a final note regarding the accounrahiliry of the University to its students, Kalbfleisch remarked, “the setting of fees makes the University more directly accountable to students. . .it puts the responsibility squarely on the University. That’s why I don’t object to deregulation.”
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