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EDITORIAL

ORGANIZE! EDUCATE! PARTICIPATE!

ON OCTOBER 17TH, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF students at colleges and universities across Canada will celebrate National Student Day. What is the deal? ls there a party going on that you don’t know about? Well, not exactly. For over 60 years students in this country have been organizing to representtheir interests to the powers that be. We have done so by creating our own autonomous student unions’, as well, we have built a strong and vibrant national student union - The Canadian Federation of Students. October 17th marks this day, and its known as National Student Day.

This year National Student Day, is particularly important. This is the year that students in this country will offer their Strategy for change to the funding crisis

of post-secondary education. It’s time we shook things up!! Students have been griping about increasing tuition fees and inadequate student aid for far to long. Itseems all levels of government are fresh out of ideas on how to tackle this growing national crisis. We want the Strategy for change to stimulate debate, raise a few eyebrows, plant someideasin the decision makers minds, and most importantly put post-secondary education back on the national agenda.

When you think about it, a fully accessible and high quality post-secondary education benefits everyone. Itensures a skilled labour force for an ever increasingly competitive international market, it assists Canada domestically by providing for continued economic growth, and it enhances the quality of life for our citizens.

We felt it was most appropriate to release our Strategy for change on National Student Day, because this is our day! Your student union has activities planned that includes aletter writing campaign. Get involved and help make the difference!

Federation National Executive

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