I am a frustrated student.
I am frustrated the dean apparently made the (not-publicly announced) decision that absence from class last Wednesday was excusable because of the student Day of Action.
I am frustrated professors wasted class time instead of moving forward without the students who decided to take the day off to "be heard."
I am frustrated that because the student union decided to do another useless "fee drop" event (the "banner drop") that my tuition for today's classes was wasted.
That's $12 for a course that is held for one hour three times a week.
On Wednesday, you wasted $36 of my tuition. You should multiply that for all the students who actually showed up to learn and were not provided a worthwhile class.
The problem runs deeper than tuition rates being too high. There would need to be a provincewide, probably countrywide, change in the way we fund post-secondary education.
We as a country need to decide it is in everyone's best interests for the employed to pay higher taxes to fund the next generation's education, rather than forcing students to fund their own way and enter the workplace in debt.
We as a country need to decide that we want to "pay it forward."
No amount of whining at the institutional level about how much we can't afford the educations we're buying is going to make that change.
I encourage raising awareness, but this flash-mob song choice missed the mark by so much that it just made me angry: youtube.com/watch?v=qcEc5E9RrLs. We can't just dance happily about how we all want to be educated for free like we haven't made this choice to get better-paying jobs in the end.
Let's at least be honest about why we're
attending post-secondary institutions. Of course, it's about money. (Let me know when love will buy me a degree. I'll be the most loving person you know.)
The student union seemed to spend a lot of our money on printing posters that didn't even portray what "Day of Action" was about.
Sometimes vague marketing works. Sometimes that poster with few words and a website to visit pique the interest of the people passing.
But for most of us who are sick of seeing the words "Education is a Right" plastered all over the school, we'd rather not see you waste money on vague advertising, and we'd love to see you try to win us over with some realistic goals for change.
The student union seemed to spend a lot of money to turn Wednesday into an "event."
You might not consider that student union fee as "tuition," but it comes out of my
account at the same time as my tuition; it's money I don't get to spend on textbooks, food, or rent.
I did check out the Education is a Right site, which I put off for a long time because the site's name starts me off on a rant all on its own.
The website seems to have better addressed the issue than the student union has. Which is a relief. I'd hate to see schools all across the country drop the ball on the actual message of the campaign as badly as we have. (Pun intended.)
I am tired of the "drop stuff for fee-dropping awareness." Let's throw pumpkins off scaffolding and "drop a banner" over the highway, and that will successfully rally students into realizing tuition is too high without actually putting forward any useful methods of change.
Newsflash: We all know tuition is high. We know we'll be in debt once we graduate. We do wish university was accessible for everyone.
Next time you put on a tuition-fees-are-too-high event, don't leave out half the message: that the money needs to come from somewhere.
Start asking the student body for ideas about how we can start social change to make education more affordable for everyone.
I'd rather have my $126.23 student union fee back in my pocket than seeing the student union renting an inflatable castle and putting on a BBQ. And don't get the dean to approve an unannounced day off without refunding students for a day of classes.
Amanda Davison,
UBC Okanagan student