rs)

April 8, 1997

i SQ@Veaels

Vaile The

mc LMA

Mot (4[=

IWweednesday

eR:

andg@Bbuttont ly

mREE!

Aygeroth - 12 Glengarry Glen

eee Sy

oavurday

Roger ayo al @ ey (Pulb

With! UiSGe [Hegel Clal

50 O

WEI

ee The Panther Prints

310% Tuition Hike Possible at UVIC

Students Take over Education Ministers Office

By SHARON BENNETT

VICTORIA (CUP) — Eight University of Victoria students staged animpromptu overnight occupation of the deputy Minister of Educa- tion’s office last Friday night to protest a proposed 310 per cent tuition increase for international students at the one of British Colum-

ia.

The demonstration be- anat 3 p.m. onFniday, March 1, with over 20 students

storming the office. Once in- side, activists took over two desks and began phoning me- dia outlets around Victoria and sending out press releases by e-mail.

Deputy Minister Don Avison was in session at the legislature but assistant Deputy Minister Shell Harvey met with three of the protest- ers to hear their demands.

UVic student leaders expressed their outrage about the UBC tuition increase, as welltheir concerns about the mounting funding pressures at UVic.

“Our position is that there shouldn’t be any differ- ential fees forinternational stu- dents because what happens is only the wealthiest students from other nations are able to attend,” said UVic student councilor LeighPhillips. “This flies in the face of accessibil- ity, which this government is supposed to be in favour of.”

Harvey said that al- though the UBC tuition in- crease was large, it only brought the international stu- dents fees up to par with the rest of Canada.

“Tt’s not the position of the provincial government to get into commenting on the decisions of the boards.”

Harvey told protesters. “But there’s two things I would note. First, the percentage in- creases that are reported at UBC certainly appear ex- tremely high.

“Second point is, the ab- solute level, however, prob- ably is right in about the na- tional average,” said Harvey. “The B.C. fees were the low- est in the nation by quite a dramatic amount, apart from Quebec.”

Phillips also expressed concernthat the UVic admin- istration would, like UBC, try some sideways moves to slip out the tuition freeze.

“Our ownuniversity, to pet around the tuition freeze,

as tried toincrease ancillary fees,” Phillips said. “They’re looking to introduce an Ath- letics and Rec user fee, they have increased class sizes in English and biology, and now arts and scienceasa faculty is going tobecutninepercentin each department.

“This is unacceptable; our education is suffering,” Phillips said.

Harvey agreed that an- cillary fees were not to be used as substitutes for tuition fees, and that the education ministry’s guidelines on this point were quite clear and specific.

Unlike the Victoria pro- testers, who brought no pro- visions for an overnight stay, the25 students who marched into UBC President David Strangway’s office on March 20 were equipped with sleep- ing bags, cooking facilities and food. Ten of those protesters occupied Strangway ’s office for five days.

The UBC Graduate Stu- dent Society says students there are protesting a recent 310 per cent increase in tui-

tionfees for new international graduate students and a 200 per cent increase for return- ing grad students.

They also oppose new technology and ath etics fees that they say go against the provincial government ’s tui- tion freeze.

“These students are the highest quality researchers from around the world who have been educated at their home country’s expense and who are coming here to pro- duce the highest quality re- search on behalf of UBC,” said Makoto Fujiwara, a Ph.D student from Japan.

“Thesestudents cannot be looked at simply as a source ofrevenue.’

The UBC protesters are demanding that tuition in- creases for international stu- dents berevoked and that all new ancillary fees and in- creases be revoked. They also demand that a binding student referendum be held onall such fees in the future. Boththe UBC and UVic pro- testers demanded that all pro- testers receive amnesty from legal or academic discipline.

After several of the an- gry UVic students met with assistant Deputy Minister Harvey, eight of the protest- ers decided to continue the occupation overnight in soli- darity with the UBC occupa- tion.

Harvey made it clear that ifthe protesters chose to stay, they risked arrest and would not have access to phone over the weekend. However, ministry officials optedto hiresecurity guards to watch the protesters over- night, warning them they had to leave by noon on Satur-

day.