Tuition hike ‘worst attack on students in 20 years’

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This article was published 26/10/2017 (3011 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There may be strong support in some quarters for an annual five per cent increase in post-secondary tuition — such as in the administration offices of Manitoba’s universities.

But it was opponents of Bill 31 who overwhelmingly packed a legislature committee hearing Wednesday night to implore the Tory government to avoid tuition increases they fear will make university unaffordable for many students.

There were 48 people registered to speak — none representing the administration at any university in Manitoba, which have been asking for years for higher tuition.

Bill 31 will allow universities to increase tuition fees by up to five per cent plus inflation as of September. They’re currently under an NDP-enacted legislated cap of the level of inflation.

University of Manitoba Students’ Union president Tanjit Nagra said the impact will be far harder on lower-income students than some people may think a five per cent increase would be.

“Scholarships and bursaries only go so far to help those who need more support,” she said. “Most international students are already struggling,” going to food banks while surviving on money from home.

“It’s punitive against students,” said Brandon University Students’ Union president Nick Brown, arguing students have had “protection” against unpredictable tuition increases under the previous NDP government.

“This is the worst attack on students in 20 years in this province.”

He said universities will “meddle” with the deregulated course fees the bill allows. Brown said BU had to leave five professor jobs vacant this year to balance its budget, and expects to leave 10 jobs empty next year.

“Bill 31 creates barriers for students with disabilities on a variety of levels,” added BU disabilities advocate Whitney Hodgins.

“Absolutely — it will hinder us greatly.”

Former NDP education minister Drew Caldwell said it’s a throwback to the Sterling Lyon-led Conservative government’s doubling of tuition in the late 1970s: “I was hit by that forcefully.”

Caldwell told Education Minister Ian Wishart it’s more important to support students now than to hold down future government debt.

Speaking for the inner-city Westland Foundation, John Prystanski acknowledged costs of wages and utilities are going up, and universities need more money. His foundation has awarded more than $377,000 to inner-city students, Prystanski said, and, if fees go up, he proposed the Tories also increase financial support to charities such as his.

“It will have a detrimental effect. A five per cent increase is only accessible to the upper class,” said University of Winnipeg student Dele Ojewole.

Longtime student leader Michael Barkman said the Tories did not promise tuition increases in their election platform.

“We need to work to eliminate tuition increases instead,” he said.

Like Nagra, Barkman said many families in need of financial help have difficulty finding out what scholarships and bursaries are available. “People don’t know how to apply,” Barkman said.

Communist Party of Manitoba Leader Darrell Rankin told the committee tuition fees maintain a class structure. “We are opposed to tuition as a hardship on workers. We want grants, not loans, we want free student housing.”

The province froze operating grants to post-secondary schools this year. A value for money audit of Manitoba’s finances by KPMG has recommended Wishart again freeze operating grants for the 2018-19 school year, and has further told the Pallister government its financial support for universities and colleges is already too generous when compared to the rest of Canada.

An undergraduate arts student taking a maximum course load currently pays about $4,500 a year in Manitoba.

KPMG estimated the post-secondary schools will reap $15 million by charging the maximum increase next fall. If the report is followed, Wishart would set community college tuition by regulation, based on rates throughout Western Canada.

The University of Manitoba Faculty Association’s written brief to the committee accuses the government of making post-secondary education less affordable and accessible.

“Governments eventually couple tuition increases with decreased block funding to universities,” said UMFA president Prof. Janet Morrill.

“The precariousness of funding makes administrations reluctant to invest in full-time, tenure track or continuing positions for professors, instructors and librarians. Instead, they offer casual, term or sessional positions.

“This is transforming post-secondary education in disastrous ways. Overworked, underpaid professors cannot offer the same quality of education to their students,” and it will be difficult to attract new skilled academics, Morrill said.

Megan Linton, a member of the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association, told a personal story of having attempted suicide after being sexually assaulted, only to have to share a student dorm and classrooms with her attacker. Living now with nerve damage, Linton pleaded with the committee to recognize what and how much it costs women survivors and the disabled to attend university, while needing time away to recover.

“I’m very confused why you’re continuing to do this. I get it, money. It’s about money, not about humanity,” Linton said.

Tory Janice Morley-Lecomte and New Democrat Flor Marcelino thanked Linton for her strength, but no one on the committee addressed the issues she raised.

UWSA president Laura Garinger briefly broke down while telling the committee how many hours of minimum-wage work it takes to raise tuition.

University of Manitoba student Niall Harney, an executive member of the Canadian Federation of Students, said scholarships and bursaries go primarily to students from wealthy families, yet the government has the “audacity” to say they go to low-income students.

Choking up, Brianne Goertzen said she was talking not as a school trustee or vice-president of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, but as a mother.

“I work hard to ensure my son does not suffer the pain of poverty I have in my life,” Goertzen said.

The poor know what adding more debt means, she said. “They know first-hand the consequences of having no money,” she said.

Nevertheless, Goertzen said, she expects people hearing her story, and of having a master’s degree after growing up in a single-parent home, will dismiss her as someone looking for “a free ride.”

“You hide behind your deficit and your rhetoric,” Goertzen said.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca