Mar. 24, 2010 - Issue #753: Zion I
News Roundup
United Together (with Slideshow)
Hundreds of students and social workers demonstrated on the steps of the Alberta legislature in two nearly back-to-back rallies last week, calling for renewed social investment in response to the cuts announced in February's provincial budget.
On Thursday, about 500 students, organized through student unions from the province's three largest universities, protested the introduction of so-called "market modifier" fees and hiking of non-instructional fees that would increase the cost of attending university above the increase in the consumer price index—an agreed-upon level found in legislation.
While student protests against rising costs of attending post-secondary education have happened before, what makes this protest different was the ground-up momentum that made it happen. "It was really driven by students who had educated themselves about the problems, and who indicated that they wanted their voices heard, rather than student unions announcing a protest and then trying to get students to participate," said Bev Eastham, VP External of the University of Alberta Students' Union.
As university boards meet over the next weeks to approve or reject fee increases, Eastham is confident that demands will partially be met, uisng the word "realistic" to describe the impact of their lobbying and rally. "The fees and market modifiers may be reduced but likely won't be totally cancelled," said Eastham.
For now, student unions have been invited by Advanced Education Minister Doug Horner to draft legislation around a regulatory framework that prohibits arbitrary hiking of non-instructional fees, which student representatives believe is the key demand. Duncan Wojtaszek, executive director of the Council of Alberta University Students, said he'd like to see decisions about fees made "as they've traditionally been done, through the mechanism of student referenda. That's the solid way to make a valid judgement on fees."
On Saturday, Join Together Alberta, a broader civil society campaign, rallied a similarly-sized crowd in response to service cuts in Budget 2010. Far from the rallies representing the end of campaigns against cuts, they are likely just the beginning. "Throughout next year, the reality of the budget cuts are going to play out across the province," said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, executive director of Public Interest Alberta. "Cuts to assistance to foster parent care, and thousands of decisions like it, illustrate what already is happening." Wojtaszek, who attended both the student union rally and Join Together, said concerns over funding cuts and fee hikes are shared across the province. The student fees are "a different face of the same narrative of cuts facing the province as a whole, which is why CAUS we're also part of Join Together Alberta. We're interested in working with any group protecting public services." V
More stories in front »
New comments for this entry have been turned off and any existing ones are hidden. We apologize for any inconvenience.
