Tuition Freeze Campaign Update
There are four students who are members of the University Governance body the Senate, and by default, are members of the Senate budget committee. In the Fall of 2020, as the Senate budget committee was reviewing and recommending approval of the University budget, one of the student senators, Kajill, put the following motion on the table:
Be it resolved that due to the unprecedented financial pressures facing students because of Covid-19, that Senate recommend to the Board of Governors to begin preparations to create a budget for the 2021-2022 fiscal year with a freeze on tuition and ancillary fee increases for all undergraduate and graduate students.
The Senate Budget Committee met to review the financial impact of this potential approach and the VP Finance, Michael Clifford, presented that this would have an impact on the University’s projected deficit in 2021/2022 of $6.8million by an additional $393,381.00
The annual increase was outlined for the 2021/2022 budget year as:
$85.33 for domestic students
$690.73 for International students
At that meeting, the student members initiated a discussion to prompt a follow-up meeting to learn more about the non-financial impacts of a tuition freeze on students. They also aimed to learn more about the financial challenges that an additional 2% increase for domestic students, and 4% (or more as is allowable by the BC government) for International and Graduate students would have as we move into another year in the adapted learning environment of covid.
At an upcoming meeting in early March the committee will return to the decision on the table to approve, reject, or amend Kajill’s original motion.
The results of the meeting will provide a suggestion to the Board of Governors as they oversee the preparation of the annual University budget and consider the tuition and ancillary fee increases for the 2021-2022 University budget.
The Senate budget meeting is an important step along the way for students to advocate for a freeze on tuition fees for the coming year.
