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4, vol 110 -- February 4, 2002

That way...
Craig Meadows

As you may already be aware, we here in B.C. are undergoing an attack on fundamental services. Included in this attack is education, which purportedly has a privileged position in the 'New Era.' Despite this position, the universities are set to deregulate tuition fees and the dear president of Simon Fraser University sees no issues with raising fees to the national average within three years. President Michael Stevenson is so far gone on this "new era" track that he actually believes, through some extremely dubious logic, that these increases will be good for students and even beneficial for the poor. Without increased student funding there will be tremendous pressure as we undergo a 70 per cent increase in tuition fees.

Perhaps it is time that something be done in convincing these people that there are choices, that off loading costs onto students does affect who can get a post-secondary education, and that the choices we make concerning taxation have direct correlational and causal impacts on those who have the least in society.

It is time that our federal government acted to ensure that tuition fees are the lowest possible, that grants replace loans for low-income earners, that people on welfare have the sources available to actually attain a university education, that parents and specifically single parents are not discriminated against in terms of the ability to attain an education, that corporate contributions to universities come with no strings attached, and that special needs students have the tools at their disposal to succeed.

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