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NEWS & FEATURES

UPEI tuition on average

Student expenses continue to climb

ome students pay their fees in the S business office, walk out and don’t give

it another thought; but most students worry. They may be worrying about borrowing thousands of dollars from the government to pay for their education, or they could be wor- rying about working thirty hours a week, plus a full course load, just so they can pay for their living expenses and tuition.

We all wonder where this money goes. Why are our fees so high? Andare we paying the same amount as most students across Canada?

A student who is taking ten courses in the 1993 - 1994 academic year at UPEI will pay a total of $2,782.00 for tuition and student fees. This is on average says President Eliot “.. Some universities charge $3000.00 and more.” For courses alone a full time student (5 courses per semester) will pay $2,490.00 ($249.00a course), but there are some universities in Canada that charge much less. University of Regina, for example, charges $1 170.00 and $44.00 in student fees. McGill University is also much lower than UPEI, charging $1515.00 and $164.00 in student fees.

Why do we pay so much? President Eliot believes that UPEI is teaching what needs to be taught, and our money helps cover the expen- ditures that go along with our education; for example, the maintenance of the library and buildings. The university, he says, “must justify the expenditures, not the rise in cost.”

So where does the money come from for these expenditures? UPEI, not including the vet college, had approximately $25 million dollars in revenue last year. $6 631 623 came from student academic fees and madeup 26.5% of the university's revenue, while government fund- ing made up 65.5%, accounting for 92% of UPEI’s revenue. Additional funding comes from the bookstore and residences ($95,000.00), $6638.00 from a variety of sources to assist in research, and $216, 000 given in endowments (from alumni and other sources) that pay for scholarships and bursaries.

As Eliot stated before, UPEI is on average for ,

tuition fees. We cover 26.5% of UPEI’s revenue where some universities’ tuition fees cover 35- 40% of the universities’ revenue.

The position we are in at the moment is not too bad, but it could get worse. Before World War Il, student academic fees were the only

4/X-Press/September 23, 1993

source of revenue. Now that the government allocates money to universities students are not responsible for as much. The future of govern- mental university funding is uncertain. This year they cut funding by $300,000 even though the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commis- sion recommended a |.7% increase.

President Eliot says that as long as the

government continues to cut back, the univer- sity may have to in the future. This would affect accessibility and many other areas; fortunately the university is in good financial standing this year and has been for the last few years. “This was not the case seven or eight years ago.” (Source: The Globe and Mail)

REBECCA MOORE

N.A.C. speaks out

Thobani speaks on politics and women’s issues

unera Thobanitook her vision of equali- S ty for women to UPEI’s Main building

last Friday evening. For a crowd of about fifty people, the president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (the N.A.C.) delivered a stirring, political speech inspiring her audience, the majority of whom were women, to continue the struggle of equal- ity.

Thobani attacked the Progressive Conserva- tive government's spending policies. Decrying reductions in funding for organizations that help women, she said that women’s groups should not take no for an answer when asking the government for financialaid for women’s causes. The government's familiar claim, that thereis no money, simply is not true in Thobani’s opinion. Rather, Thobani says the cause of inequality for women is not high on the government's list of priorities in spending the money they do have. Thobani cited the amount of tax dollars that go to N.A.C. groups and the amount going to the Canadian Volleyball Association. While the government spends ten million dollars on the N.A.C.,an organization dedicated to the welfare of millions of people, it also spends one million on the Canadian Volleyball Association.

Thobani also criticized the government’s spending record on social programmes. Saying that social programmes such as Unemployment Insurance and Medicare distribute goods and services more evenly throughout society, Thobani stated that cutbacks in social pro-

grammes are bound to deeply affect women since they make up seventy-two per cent of workers in the ten lowest paying occupations in Canada. The people who need social pro- grammes the most are women. With particular reference to Medicare, Thobani added that since women are the traditional caregivers in society, cuts in medicare would put more women to work nursing the sick - work which would be unpaid and would go unrecognized by prospec- tive employers.

The roots of the Tory spending policies are, according to-Thobani, the Conservatives’ belief in non-intervention in the economy. According to this doctrine, the fittest shall survive. Ac- cording to Thobani, the bottom line should be equality - not being the fittest. Thobani pointed out that under the Tories’ survival of the fittest ideology, it is those who are already rich and powerful who benefit, and those who are al- ready poor and powerless who stand to lose.

_ Thobani did not single out the Conserva- tives for attack. The Liberals were not spared for promising to implement a wide-ranging child- care policy, but only on the condition ofa three Percent growth in the economy within the next year, while the N.A.C. believes that daycare should be a universal right.

Although the New Democrats escaped any significant commentary by Thobani, they are not officially preferred by the N.A.C., which is officially non-partisan.

EDWARD FOBES