Books or Food?

Buckling under the pressure of high tuition, many students are being forced to drop out of school, lower their course load or bypass postsecondary education altogether. Or perhaps there are other sacrifices to make; choosing to buy books instead of food, or taking on more than one job.

The Crisis

Students have already been hit hard by federal funding cuts and rising tuition fees — as much as 250 per cent in some provinces. The average tuition hike has been 126 per cent during the past ten years. Ontario has the second-highest rates in Canada, and the lowest per capita funding levels.

And now, deregulation.

In Ontario, undergraduate tuition can increase 2 per cent a year at most, but that could soon change. On December 11, 2001, Dianne Cunningham, Ontario’s Minister of Training and Colleges, announced that the Conservative government was openly considering deregulating all undergraduate tuitions.

Such a move would mean that any college or university could raise tuition fees as high as it likes, without any caps or limits set by the provincial government.

Rick Telfer, a representative of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), is worried about the future accessibility of education. “As a result of deregulation, access to higher education has been severely compromised, and student debt has skyrocketed. Statistics and studies repeatedly reveal that students from low income backgrounds are disappearing from deregulated programs such as law and medicine.”

Kashif Pirzada, currently studying medicine at the University of Toronto, outlined the situation facing future doctors. “Our tuition now stands at $16,000, which is three times what any student can earn in the summer. Add to that the cost of living, and you have hundreds of future physicians who will owe over $100,000 in student loans. Right now, as it stands, with student financial aid so woefully inadequate, you are out of luck if you come from a modest financial background.”

The Impact on Students

Increasingly, students have to prioritize their essential needs against their educational aspirations. They are also being forced to make up for a lack of financial assistance.

“It is not unusual for a student to have more than one job while attending university,” Odelia Bay, president of Ryerson University’s student administrative council, said. “Forget part-time work. These students are working two or three jobs, just to make ends meet, while also trying to maintain their studies. For students who are really on the edge, they have to make hard choices: buy the required course textbooks or pay the rent and buy groceries. Something is going to suffer under these conditions, and it is usually their schoolwork.”

Bay illustrated the crisis students are facing: “We have seen a steady increase in the number of students relying on our food bank over the past few years; especially so with students from already deregulated programs. We’ve also seen an increase in the number of bursary applications.”

And, once students graduate, they face huge debts. According to the CFS, this is a result of devastating funding cuts. On average, students completing a four-year program will be $25,000 in debt — an increase of 300 per cent from 1990.

The Fight Back

Queen’s University has been particularly active around the deregulation issue. In late 2001, Queen’s University principal, William Leggett, asked the provincial government to allow the deregulation of all undergraduate tuition fees.

Five Queen’s students protested by occupying the administration office next to Leggett’s for five days. Shortly after the occupation ended, The Toronto Star published a letter from Cunningham to Leggett, explaining that the government rejected the proposal. Cunningham is quoted saying: “The government is not prepared to make any exception to the regulated system of tuition fees at this time.”

Joel Duff, the Ontario chair for the Canadian Federation of Students, was pleased with the decision. “Given the level of opposition of this proposal to allow unlimited tuition fee increases for undergraduate programmes at Queen’s University, the government has made a prudent decision.”

Students across the country are making it clear that they will fight tuition increases and lobby for more federal and provincial funding. Tuition freezes and reductions have already been achieved in British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec and Newfoundland. Now the battle is raging in Ontario.

According to a recent Ipsos-Reid poll, two thirds of Ontarians are concerned about access to postsecondary education. Of the parents who are fearful their kids won’t go to college or university, 80 per cent said they won’t be able to pay the higher fees charged under a Conservative government.

Ontario MPP Rosario Marchese (Trinity–Spadina) said, “The Conservative government has all the evidence it needs that the public rejects their college and university under funding policies.”

Telfer agreed. “From the poll, the 905 region [the area code for several municipalities surrounding Toronto] has an 80 per cent support base for a tuition freeze or reduction. In this case, Ontarians and many of the Conservative government constituents are in direct opposition to their party.”

Provincial Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty said that a tuition freeze is feasible for Ontario, but Cunningham has stated that the government is not prepared to modify its original five-year funding plan for postsecondary education.

In response, the CFS has declared February 6 a nation-wide day of action against high tuition fees and deregulation. The federation is encouraging all students to take the issue to the streets. As Alex Gunz, a graduate student at Waterloo, commented, “No one ever said that IQ and money were distributed to the same people all the time.”

Krystalline Kraus

krystalline kraus is an intrepid explorer and reporter from Toronto, Canada. A veteran activist and journalist for rabble.ca, she needs no aviator goggles, gas mask or red cape but proceeds fearlessly...