The battle over tuition
Re: “For and against student protests” (Your Views, March 21).
Michael Sweet compares the U.S. student protests against racism and the Vietnam War with Montreal students’ protests against a raise in tuition fees. The causes could not be more different.
The 1960s protests advocated respect and equality for all and opposed a war that the U.S. should never have been in. This student protest is about a few hundred dollars that the students will have to pay so that the universities can attract and retain good professors and provide quality education.
Franceen Finesilver
Côte St. Luc
Most people don’t realize that the student protests are not really about the money. The protesters have only a few years left of their student life.
The students are protesting the trend to put education into the realm of the elite. By increasing fees even slightly, the government makes it a little less appealing to poorer people to pursue higher education. This would create a class of people who will be left more poor, both in monetary and educational terms.
Steve Pearson
St. Hubert
Former provincial Liberal cabinet minister Claude Castonguay suggests that both parties in the tuition-fee debate sit down with a mediator. This welcome voice of reason is long overdue.
Young people know that their chances of success are greatly enhanced by post-secondary studies. The “knowledge economy” is touted by governments as a driving force of economic prosperity. So it is in the interest of all that we have a well-educated workforce.
A news report indicates that 61.5 per cent of university students are able to finance their studies without a loan or a bursary. This still leaves a large proportion of students who are in need of financial assistance.
One university has announced that a proportion of tuition fees will be applied to its financial-aid programs. Why not have the government impose this formula on all public universities?
Teresa Alper
Pointe Claire
Re: “As students protest, the rest of us pay” (Gazette, March 20).
Henry Aubin’s column on why students should foot the security bill for, or in other words pay for, their right to protest is another example of how the mainstream media misrepresent the students’ fight against tuition increases.
Aubin condenses the students’ reasons for protesting to “they just don’t want to pay higher tuition fees” or “for profit,” both of which are wrong. I support the strike because the universities are not underfunded but rather are victims of the improper use of funding. More money is allocated to research than teaching. I support the strike because of swelling management expenses, and because students have to work longer now to pay for their education than 30 years ago.
I challenge the mainstream media to get informed. I am tired of being misrepresented.
Craig Richard
Montreal
I am not a student. I’m a 58-year-old who is fed up with the apathy that Quebecers have shown over the years. This has led to our governments getting away with scandal after scandal, and with tax increase after tax increase, all without a peep from the people. Please wake up and see how our government has squandered our tax dollars on unnecessary undertakings instead of on the maintenance of our infrastructure. Now that all our bridges have become something citizens fear to use, the government is broke and can’t afford the repairs. That’s why it is looking for any way it can to tax us.
The student protest is not only the voice of fed-up students but a collective cry from all of us telling our government that it can no longer bask in unquestioned, unopposed authority and do what it wants. The citizenry is awake now. Apathy is a word of the past! Maria Montuori
Montreal
Students protesting over school-fee increases? Ridiculous. Where were these people when the provincial sales tax went up? The only good thing about this circus is perhaps the students and youth in general will develop a sense of tax revolt. When they grow up, maybe they can fight real issues such as GST/PST increases, the proposed $4 toll on the Champlain Bridge, property-tax increases, etc.
Larry Fagen
Dollard des Ormeaux Re: “Squatter ignores eviction letter” (Gazette, March 20).
I have been following Elizabeth Hennigar’s plight, in which a handyman, James Clarke, has refused to leave Hennigar’s home. Perhaps Hennigar could invite some striking Concordia students to take up temporary residence in her home. They could descend en masse, making noise and preventing Clarke from moving about freely. They could squat along with him in the bedroom, playing musical instruments and singing him to sleep. This way, perhaps Clarke would leave Hennigar’s home, and the striking students would leave professors to teach unharassed, and those students who have paid for their education could attend class. And Hennigar would have her home back. It’s a win-win situation.
Christine Bednarzig
Pointe Claire