Students and their rights
Re: “For and against student tactics” (Your Views, March 21).
While I have mixed feelings about the student protest against the government’s proposed tuition hikes, I agree that students actively engaging in the democratic process by exercising their new-found political voices is both normal and healthy. But for letter-writer Michael Sweet to compare what has evolved into a temper tantrum by a large self-interest group with the momentous struggle in the U.S. for racial equality and an end to the war in Vietnam strains all credulity. Equating “No way, we won’t pay!” with “Hell no, we won’t go!” is both pretentious and wrong. Edward Ruediger
Greenfield Park
I think it is important that the students be heard. I am old and somewhat complacent, and I realize that any change will come from those less established, and with more energy and idealism.
I remember when we closed down our high school to protest against school uniforms. We were crushed by the administration in less than a day. But we got our point across and, eventually, that high school eliminated school uniforms.
As university students, we protested injustices, and although we were all idealists, we firmly believed in our causes.
I think it is important that youth rebel. After all, who else is going to do it? I guess whether I agree with the student position or not, I am glad to see them protest with conviction for what they believe. It will make them better adults. Richard Benzakein
Westmount
To Disgruntled Students: You are causing disruptions at untold costs to the city of Montreal and private businesses. Your tactics demonstrate your hedonistic attitudes borne of your expectation that society owes you. If you cut back on your $5 designer coffees and the time on your iphones, you would will not even notice the tuition increase.
Quit whining and realize taxpayers owe you nothing, other than disgust, until you earn our respect.
Claire Panet-raymond
Montreal
Re: “Striking students planning to increase pressure tactics ”(gazette, March 22).
I have been a perpetual student, obtaining two college degrees and almost two university degrees over nine years. In fact, I ended up going back to CEGEP after university to pursue a successful nursing career.
My debt due to my education is zero. I paid for my education mostly by delivering The Gazette every morning for 10 years. I find it very difficult to sympathize with the student protest of the measly increase in tuition of $1,625 over five years. This increase could easily be covered by a part-time minimum-wage job. I suggest that these students start flipping some burgers or delivering some newspapers and start getting ready for the real world. Nathan Friedland
Roxboro
We have the cheapest post-secondary education in North America and, except for France, probably in the entire Western world.
We are supposed to be training this generation to take over the leadership of our country. But if the government caves on tuition hikes, all we would have succeeded in teaching it is that if you scream loud enough, whether it makes sense or not, someone else will take care of it for you.
People mention that the government mismanages the money it collects. So what else is new? Reducing the fee hikes doesn’t change that; it just shifts it somewhere else.
It costs real money to attract quality teachers to quality environments that provide such an excellent education. A lot of that funding comes from private anonymous donors – or did, until some genius thought that outing them to the world made sense – and some from government. Students should do their part to help secure a better future, right? Peter Charron
Westmount
I would like to ask protesting students how many of them have smartphones. I would guess the answer is nearly all of them.
Then I would like to know how much they pay for those smartphones annually. I can just about guarantee that it is substantially more than the proposed $300-plus hike in tuition fees they are so vociferously protesting.
A modest suggestion to the protesters: give up your smartphones while you are in school. Your slightly elevated tuition will be covered, and you will have money left over to buy other things, like schoolbooks.
Here’s a fact: millions who preceded you in university before the digital age did just fine without smartphones. And flush with the money you save, you will not feel compelled to disrupt the lives of everyone else with your petty grievances. Paul Globus
Montreal