Student fees hiked to finance services
A recommendation to increase fees for student services by almost 50 per cent over three years was approved by the Concordia Council on Student Life (CCSL) on May 5, but not without a fight.
The need for adequate financial support for student services at Concordia was evident to everyone, but many students were reluctant to approve the motion even after it had been amended to reinforce the need to find other funding sources.
The budget presented by Executive Director of Enrolment and Student Services Roger Côté called for a three-year stepped increase in the per-credit-fee that students pay for services.
Currently the fee is $6.90 per credit, just over $200 a year for a full-time student. The new budget would increase that to $9.73 per credit for 2006-07, effective June 1. The fee would eventually hit $10.23 in the 2008-09 fiscal year, $100 more a year for full-time students.
Cherry Marshall, one of the undergraduate representatives on the CCSL, summed up her situation: “I use the services all the time. Each semester, I’m at the Financial Aid office at 8 a.m. But I just received a letter that basically says, ‘Congratulations on your upcoming graduation. This is your outstanding student debt….’ I don’t know how I’m going to pay it.”
The CCSL is the highest non-academic advisory committee reporting to the Board of Governors. Chaired by the Dean of Students, it includes the directors of services as well as faculty and students.
The budget was first introduced on April 7. Tensions ran high at that meeting, which lasted five hours. Fearing similar disagreement, several uniformed security guards were posted outside the meeting room on May 5.
Côté presented a slightly modified version of the budget, adjusted down 20 cents per credit by eliminating proposed improvements to student space at Loyola.
He said that the nearly $3-per-credit increase was primarily due to two major factors: 1) expenses related to recently approved collective agreements and 2) the need to ensure that both the International Students Office and Financial Aid and Awards could keep up with the increased demand on their services.
He later added that government transfer funding to universities is not available for student services.
The directors of various services presented statistics on the number of visits received annually by their already stretched teams. Most receive upwards of 20,000 visits per year. Director of Health Services Melanie Drew reported a 40 per cent increase in visits in the last four years.
Student representatives, like Marshall, were unanimous in their support of student services. However, they were extremely uncomfortable approving the leap in ancillary fees, which many pointed out were already the highest in Canada.
Graduate Student Association president David Bernans questioned why the CCSL had to present a balanced budget, since other sectors had debt carried by the university.
Steven Rosenshein, the Concordia Student Union vice-president communications and undergraduate representative on the CCSL, was very reluctant to pass the burden of chronic under-funding of educational institutions on to students. He warned of a pattern of government funding cuts in direct proportion to increases in student contributions in other provinces.
Other students asked how vigorously other options had been pursued before the increase in student fees was proposed.
Director of Recreation and Athletics Katie Sheahan responded that the determination to find other sources of revenue had maintained student fees constant for the past nine years.
Finally, graduate student representative Bianca Mugyenyi proposed the amendment to continue to actively seek other funding sources.
Côté accepted this as a friendly amendment and the budget was passed with that understanding.