On Tuition

This is a response to Dad's shout out about the tuition increases.

If the increased tuition was going to raises for the teachers, I'd be all for it. Like the students at the University of Manitoba, who have begun an uphill battle to see their tuition raised by 112 per cent. It's not often Canadian students lobby to pay more, but the I.H. Asper School of Business wants to ignore the Manitoba government's tuition freeze.

There are several problems with the tuition increase, here at the University of Calgary.

First and foremost is the fact that a 4.8% increase won't solve the University's problems. We still need more money.

Second it pits the administration against the students. Really the administration doesn't want us to have a high tuition, they want us to have a fair tuition. Dr.Bond (one of the administrators) said that tuition should not be free, but that it should be fair. If the admin could get the money from Ralph Klein or his more liberal federal counterparts, they would.

Third it doesn't account for those sneaky accountants. By law, the University can only charge 30% of it's operating budget to students. The accountants then start fooling with the budget. Suddenly things that were charged under the capital budget last year are part of the operating budget this year, and the 30% that the students have to pay is bigger this year than last year. Another sneaky thing they do is jack up the prices in the bookstore on everything, not just the books, although the books are the worst. Now the bookstore is gouging the students much more, but the tuition stays the same.

-Gary, sees problems with tuition all around.