THE VARSITY Vol. CXXXIII, No. 16
University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880
11 February, 2013
pg 6
Students charged “illegal” fees
Trinity, SMC, Engineers announce UTSU secession plans
Admission prompted by student union-led investigation
Zane Schwartz
Vipasha Shaikh & Sheena Singh VARSITY STAFF
In response to an initial investigation by U of T student unions, senior university administrators released a report last Tuesday that found at least seven ancillary fees charged to students were in violation of guidelines set out by the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities (mtcu), as well the University of Toronto’s Policy on Ancillary Fees. The report downplayed the number of fees in violation, saying that while “a few instances of fees may be interpreted as non-compliant,” the “vast majority” were in line with university policy. mtcu guidelines state that if a university levies a fee later found to be illegal, and no resolution can be achieved, “the university’s operating grant will be reduced by an amount which corresponds to the revenue raised by the fee increase,” meaning that the university would receive less funding from the province. U of T’s vice-president, university operations Scott Mabury said there would be no refunds of the fees that had been found in violation of Ministry policy. Instead, they will cease to be charged to students in the future. Upon finding that “embedded in the university’s list of ancillary fees are many user-fee items that should be covered under tuition fees,” the
University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu), Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (scsu), and Graduate Students’ Union (gsu) began a lengthy process: scrutinizing thousands of fees, levied upon students in dozens of faculties and departments across U of T’s three campuses. The results of those investigations, which began last year, were shared with The Varsity by representatives of the student unions. “It is obvious that the university needs to seriously reconsider the mtcu’s policy on compulsory fees,” finds the utsu’s report. “Many of the fees currently being charged to students do not fall within the guidelines, and many more of these fees are simply unjustified or illegal.” The utsu’s submission condemns the university, claiming that it should be “ashamed” for “exploiting what it considers to be loopholes in the policy as a means of generating revenue.” The unions and the administration remain divided over the question of at least eight other fees, ranging from copyright access to co-op fees, to system access fees for rosi. “It is becoming more of a trend for universities to go to student councils to raise fees,” said Munib Sajjad, vice-president, university affairs for the utsu. “We have to look into things like infrastructure fees and computer fees, and why we should be paying this.”
The administration’s fee review was conducted by the Office of the ViceProvost, Students, and the Planning and Budget Office. Its findings were presented to the Business Board in late-January 2013, several months later than the university had promised. At the Business Board meeting, Mabury stated that the crux of the university’s findings were that “most fees in Category 5/6 were found to be [in] compliance” with a limited number of fees that were not compliant. The administration’s report commits to discontinuing the fees found in violation by 2013–2014. The university has also ruled that iClickers and other additional online materials for courses are no longer required to be purchased by students in order to complete a mandatory credit course — instead, the university is to provide other methods of evaluation to its students that do not require these materials. The report also commits to updating departmental websites, and revising the next ancillary fee schedule to “unbundle” certain fees that are currently a black box, levied under vaguely-worded descriptions, such as the laboratory supply fee that charges for multiple items, such as course manuals, lab coats, and equipment. The university will also clear up another vague fee that is charged to students
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ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
Student heads from Trinity College, St. Michael’s College (smc), and the Engineering Society announced Sunday that they plan to seek “defederation” from the University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu), a potentially drastic measure if approved. The surprise announcement came as the union prepares to host executive elections this year that will not feature some of the key reforms demanded by the college leaders. All three college leaders seeking defederation cited the minutes of the Elections and Referenda Committee (erc), which met on Thursday and Saturday last week, as clear indications that their reform recommendations were not going to be implemented in time. The minutes of the erc meeting strongly suggest that this year’s election will not utilize online voting, a key plank in the college-backed NonPartisan Declaration on utsu Electoral Reform. The student body is slated to vote on the Non-Partisan Declaration at a special meeting on Tuesday night (for more, see “Cliffhanger” pg 6). The union reacted to calls for electoral reform by hiring a law firm to conduct a review of its current electoral policies. The review considered submissions from a number of sources, including the Non-Partisan Declaration. The results of the firm’s
review were released late last week, and did not include the proposals listed in the Declaration, focusing instead on clarifying rules, appeals processes, and election timelines. Rishi Maharaj from the Engineering faculty, Mike Cowan from St. Michael’s, and Sam Greene from Trinity have been quietly preparing over several months for the possibility of defederation referenda. The Engineering Society has earmarked $100,000 for legal fees and hired the law firm Heenan Blaikie on retainer. Heenan Blaikie has previously represented students’ unions attempting to defederate from the Canadian Federation of Students — a national organization of which the utsu is a member — most recently at Guelph. Attempts to part ways with the cfs have resulted in lengthy and expensive legal battles. “From the beginning of this discussion everyone must have been thinking about legal representation,” said Maharaj. The Engineering Society executive will meet Monday to discuss next steps, and will likely ask their Board of Directors to discuss approving in principle the concept of a referendum on defederation, with specific text to be finalized at a later date. Trinity will follow a similar process, with the meeting to approve the holding of a referendum set for this Thursday. “It’s clear that the Union is ignoring the will of its members in order to maintain the system that keeps incum-
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