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Tuition and residence fee increases appear to be‘a fact of life for students anywhere in Canada these days, rever— sing the trend of the‘last few years towards more and 'more government assistance of students and universit ies. This trend had reached the point'where the student paid only 15% or so of the cost of his/hergeducation..However.it appears that this trend is finally reVersing itself. 7

During the sixties, the single ideal espoused by the— orists about universities was that education should be av— ailable to all. Since only the rich could afford college education then the inevitable conclusion was that the gov— ernment would have to support higher education (like every— thing else that only the rich could afford). ‘

Money was available freely to anyone or anything that‘ remotely was related to a? college. Professors and grad students got exotic research grants; students got grants and loans; the university it- self got money for everything (more staff, bigger salaries, larger buildings, etc.)

Of course with all this money available the univer- sities began to be very spen- dthrift and expansionist. New buildings went Up everywhere; enrollments increased (some- times several timestover); and new staff were hired at' an incredible rate. In fact in the early stages the num- ber of graduates turned out was just barely enough to teach the next crop to come along. ' '

I“

Like most universities,

,U.P.E.I. gained_several new

facilities during this era — two new residences, a Student Union Building (?!), a scie—

nce building, some classrooms‘ -and no less than two librar-

ies. This is despite theifact that enrollment here, unlike

most places, actually decres— ed from 1969 on. -

The question that was only too rarely asked (as is true ' in the expansionist phases of just about anything from a human being to a civilization) is "What will happen when the whole affair is over". For that matter why the affair in the first place?

The most commdn explana- tion for the phase was that it was necessary so that an education would be available for all. Almost never did anyone question exactly what an education was and if in fact everyone would want one. These are unimportant. What was - and\still is_- impert— ant is that an education is a lgottahave'._No well—dres—‘ sed man should be without one. _ ,

In the states, they some- times argued that 'we have to beat the Russians' (doing

what no one was really sure but in any case it involved science and technology and

‘ men on the moon).

And that where we get to the crux of the matter - the education of the masses has never been Something that” has been eSpoused for the

‘sake of the masses. Rather

the education of the masses has been necesSary to enable them to do something for the society they live‘in — in other words work as docily

~as possible in some pointless

job for someone else. When the corporations needed tec-

_ hnically trained people, the

unversities obligled by pro— viding the facilities and the government obliged by”

providing the money.

No that - at last — the universities have turned out enough graduates to meet the market for them, industry ignores them and government cut off (or in a time of in—

\flation,,freeze) the funding.

Of course this plays hell with the unversities themse— lves. By the mid—sixties

they had convinced themsel-c.

ves - and society - that

. their proper role was to

teach people all the secrets

‘The Cadre, March 23,1976, page five

5 must find Direction '

of modern science so that they could get A Good Job

. and we could Beat the Ruskie

es. Now that there are no more Good Jobs and the Rus— kies decided that they didn't want to play, the universit— ies are in the middle of an identity crisis. Having aban— doned the role that they held (or at least claimed to hold) for centuries to becOme the school of a technocracy, they suddenly find that the tech- nocracy doesn't want them

any more. Either they sit back and pray that evrything will be like it was before — when they secretly know that it won't or they act irra- tional and search for a scapegoat. _

Hence the unviersity has found itself left in the lu— rch with no compensation from the technocracy except a glittering new campus. In a very real sense of the

‘phrase, universities, have

lost their direction. Possib— ly the tightening will enable the universities to come back

‘by forcing them to look in—

ward for rescurces rather than outward. They may thuS' re—gain their 'soul'. One

,can hope so anyway.

r

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