Students must face up to the crisis facing education and their future.
Tuition will rise and classes will grow while our representatives fritter away our futures by befriending the government and turning a blind eye to education funding alternatives.
While the Students' Union quibbles about a Safewalk budget, the Student Financial Aid Centre slips quietly down the drain to the dismay of at least 5,000 students who used it last year. The SU could invest another $50,000 to run the centre which attracted more students than the SU election.
As scholarships decrease and student loans become unpredictable, the emergency bursaries and absic budgeting information the Centre provided have become even more important and more necessary than ever. And for the majority of students, finding a well-paying summer job is like trying to find a low calorie meal when you're at McDoonald's.
Next summer, students must save at least $1,000 per month for tuition alone. You may as well rob an Esso to pay your books, food, heating and rent.
If you think we have it easy, hold on for a bumpy ride into the future. Upon arrival, you will find both you, your partner and your children working yourselves to death to earn enough for your kids' university education. That is, if Alberta still has any universities.
Even if tuition continues to rise only $200 per year, in 30 years tuition will cost $10,000 per year, excluding inflation and new taxes. Knowing our government, this estimate is insanely optimistic. Tuition has become a student tax which targets the poorest, youngest portion of our population. In 30 years, tuition will likely have risen to approximately $20,000 [per year]. Even then, we feel we are being overly optimistic.
If we do not take responsibility now and start representing ourselves effectively, our provincial and student governments will have stolen our future from us.
Harass your representatives like SU vp academic Garet Poston, for information on the disintegration of your program and faculty. In order to effectively figh against the government, we must know what we lose before we can regain it.
When we called Poston last Friday (at 492-4241 and 438-5036) to ask him about his initiatives to save the U of A's academic programs, his mother told us he was playing golf that morning as an SU representative. Is this effective representation? We think not.
Students must emerge from their shells and create student power. The stronger we struggle, the more scared of the future the government will become. There lies victory. Take aim.