By Editorial
The most important thing you will ever learn in university is to be a participant in your own life. Whether you realize it or not, the most important thing in your life is university. Your university administration is quickly working to strangle that out of you, and this year’s tuition fiasco is a prime example.
Not to harp on the good old days, but the goals of last year’s tuition protest were twofold: to get regular students involved in their education and secure a zero tuition increase. The goals of this year’s Students’ Union tuition battle is to gain a 65 per cent increase, while keeping students out of it–all the while claiming to have gained the upper hand. Administration has even convinced the SU to do their dirty work for them, by starting up a doomed-to-fail postcard campaign. (Remember how well the last one worked?) You are now officially Admin’s pawns–you will be doing their job.
We are not against students lobbying the government–far from it. In fact, please do. We just wish you didn’t have to swallow a load of bullshit before being convinced to do so. Every single condition which lead to last year’s protest still exists–the mismanagement of monies, the threats to stop expansion and the elitist nature of the Board of Governors–even more so if you consider administration’s $210 slap in the face. Professors are still overworked, students are still broke and still administration will never act against the government for fear of sliding down the totem pole of the master-servant relationship.
Students were in an unusually strong bargaining position this year. President Terry White is up for evaluation and the trump card of protesting and bad press lay waiting to strike. We could have had it all… if only anyone had been interested. Look around you. There are a lot of students who are walking around dead to the world.
But wait, there are people interested–last year proved it. It’s just without organizational and monetary support from the SU, it’s nearly impossible to organize something that huge. Still, it is not too late.
You have a duty to yourself to speak your mind and a right to be heard–whether or not anyone is listening.
This is the time to be giants.