TtiE MCG IU TRIBUNE
Volume 5, Number 15
Published by the Students' Society of McGill University
Tuesday, 21 January, 1986
CDU Advocates Doubling Tuition Fees by Sophie Wilson If the provincial government follows the advice of the Conseil des Univer sités, students could be paying twice as much for a Québec education by September. The Conseil, an advisory board to the Ministry of Higher Education and Science, released its report last week on the state of post-secondary education. Describing the situation as "so precarious that it becomes necessary to speak of a crisis," the Conseil called for urgent action on the part the univer sities to diversify their sources of revenue.
Full time students at M cGill currently pay $570 each year in tuition fees. If the Conseil's proposal is instituted by the provincial government, with the sug gested $500 increase and a "20% leeway," students could be paying $1170 in tuition fees next year. The $200 students pay in additional fees to the Students' Society, the Daily and the like, and the $100 photocopying charge would bring the cost to $1470 for one year of studies at M cGill. Students in Ontario pay an average of $1200 a year in tuition fees. In Quebec, 76.6% of the cost of runn ing a university is paid for by the provin
cial government, according to the Con seil report. Other provinces pay bet ween 63.2% and 70.7% of the cost of post-secondary education. Ontario students contribute 17.1 % of the cost of their studies; Quebec students offer only 8% of the cost. In an External Affairs Committee meeting on Friday, Students' Society V.P. External Luc Joli-Coeur said he was "opposed to any sort of fee increase un til there is a reform of the university fun ding formula, and a substantial reform of the loan and bursary programme." Students' Society policy supports a fee hike that would raise fees to 10% of the
cost of studies. The Conseil des Universités, although not advocating "substantial reform of the loan and bursary programme," did suggest that one third of the additional money generated by a fee hike would be channelled directly into an expand ed loan and bursary system. People have criticized the Conseil report for not coming up with sugges tions of ways to diversify university revenue sources. Charles G . Gallant of the Regroupement des Associations des Etudiant(e)s universitaires (RAEU) noted that "their only substantive recommen dation was an increase of tuition fees." M cGill Administration had a generally more favourable reaction to the Conseil report. Principal Johnston was pleased that the report recognized underfun ding as a "grave situation," pinpointing McGill as one of four universities in Quebec in serious financial diffulty. Although Johnston agreed that the report did not offer concrete proposals for instigating a "more positive fiscal ar rangement," he expected that tax in centives to encourage donations would
be part of the arrangment. Said M cGill's vice principal Ad ministration and Finance, John Armour, "the university is operating on a $9 million deficit—that's not to the benefit of students." The money Q uebec u n iversity students pay for tuition does not go directly into university coffers, but is paid to the provincial government, which then gives grants to the in dividual universities. Thus, an increase in fees does not guarantee an equivalent increase in revenue. Said Gallant of RAEU, "it's going to cost more for the same thing." Madeleine Perron, representative for the Conseil des Universités, stressed to the Tribune that the Conseil's function was "only consultative". Said Perron, "The Conseil has called for more money before, and been ignored before...Claude Ryan can do what he wants with the Report." Principal Johnston echoed Perron's sentiment, "I would not expect to see terribly prompt action on this."
Electrical Engineers M ay O p t O u t of D a i l y
The Amphibians slinked out of their subterranean home to raise money for Montreal's food banks at Douglas hall on Saturday. For the complete slime see page 7.
C o n stitu tio n D raft Ready by Adeeb Khalid and Brian Todd StudSoc might soon have a new Con—stitution. Some time this week, the Con stitution Com m ittee of M c G ill's Students' Council hopes to make public a draft version of the proposals. At press time, the document was still in a state of flux and the draft proposals will only be put in final shape at a meeting of the five-member Constitu tion Committee Tuesday afternoon. However, StudSoc president James Green, a member of the committee, talked to the Tribune on Sunday about the broad themes of the new constitu tion. According the Green, the proposed constitution would answer the need for "a document that is more easily read. It would cover up the inconsistencies in the current constitution and reflect reality rather than an ideal situation." Green acknowledged that the major impetus for the new document came from the Post Graduate Society (PGSS) who had been pushing for increased representation, entrenchment of dif ferentia! fées and increased financial responsibility. Green expects that the proposed con stitution will satisfuy PGSS. "They are getting 90 % of what they wanted," he said. The new constitution proposed to en trench the principle of differential fees for graduate and part-time students, though not at current levels, as demand ed by PGSS. "Graduate students use this place (the Union Building) as much as undergraduates do," said Green,
"and the fees have been set at a level that is fair to all. W e're entrenching the principle, and that is something they've never had before." Among other changes proposed in the new constitution, the Students' Council will grow in size. Proposals in clude increasing representation for students on Senate and the Board of Governors from two to three, and the creation of new position of Athletics representative to Council. The propos ed constitution will also provide for the direct election of StudSoc's VicePresident University Affairs. However, the Vice President Finance will continue to be elected from Students C o u n c il. T h e by-law s, however, would prohibit deficit financ ing of StudSoc and require the VP Finance to submit monthly reports to the Joint Management Committee. The constituion would also set out the powers of the Judicial Board of the Society. Currently, the Judicial Board is mentioned only in the by-laws. The by-laws of the proposed docu ment deal with a broader range of issues. Among the changes envisaged is the creation of a "Pçjlicy M anual", a public document including all binding policy decisions ever taken by StudSoc, to act as guidelines for StudSoc actions. The Manual would also incorporate financial controls, Green said. Other features of the by-laws include the proposal to continue Council meetings that do not reach quorum as "unoffical meetings" where Councillors would act as advisers to the Executive committee. Green sees this as a way of
strengthening Council vis-à-vis the Ex ecutive. "Unofficial meetings w ill ensure some Council input into executive deci sions which would be lost if there was no meeting at all," he said. The by-laws would also set out the powers of the executive director of Studsoc. The proposals also stipulate five year contracts for employees of the Society, although Green expects a fight from the M cGill University NonAcademic Staff Association on this mat ter. Another point of debate might be the mechanism proposed for amendments to the constitution. The proposals give only Council the power to amend the constitution. Student Initiated Referen da would only be able to amend the contents of the Policy Manual. "I would hate to have an uneducated referendum where someone would blow a hole in the constituion with a nice bit of rhetoric and a lot of publicity," said Green. "If a proposal is good enough, I don't see why Council would not accept it," he argued. Green hopes that the Constitution committee will be able to put the draft proposals before Council at its next meeting on January 28. The document that is finally adopted might very well be considerably different from what it is now. Indeed, according to Green, "there is definitely a possibility that we won't get it through." After consideration and amendment by Council, the document will be put before Senate and then the general stu dent body for ratificaion.
by Michael Smart A lot of students find ingenious ways to avoid paying their bills. But no at tempt is more novel than that of one McGill students' association, which believes it can use an act of the provin cial legislature to opt out of paying fees to the McGill Daily. According to Dave Bernardi, an of ficer of the Electrial Engineering Graduate Students' Society, his associa tion is presently considering invoking Bill 32 to allow its members to avoid be ing assessed the $5.70 that all McGill students must by University statute pay annually to the Daily. He said EEGSS Council would make a final decision on the matter by April of this year. Bill 32 is the provincial law passed in 1983 which provides for the recognition -and guarantee of financing for students' associations. The EEGSS was accredited under the Act in October 1985, making it the first McGill student group to be legally recognised by the government. EEGSS speaker Steven Fraser was unable to quote a provision of Bill 32 which would allow his association to opt out of Daily fees. But he said there were "a number of sections of the Act" which stipulate that members of ac credited associations (like EEGSS) need not pay fees to unaccredited associa tions. The DPS has not been accredited under the Act. The Tribune was unable to discern any such stipulation through the legalese of the Act. However, the Act does say that universities "m ay collect" fees on behalf of unaccredited associa tions like the DPS. Fraser has had previous run-ins with the Daily as a past president of the Post Graduate Students' Society. The PGSS has fought the Daily over fee equalisa tion and the accountability of Daily staff in the recent past. According to- Guy Major, an ac creditation agent employed by the Ministère d'enseignement supériere, "the fact of (the EEGSS) being ac credited does not abolish the right of M cGill University to impose any other assessment" for other student groups or services. The University "always has the right to impose different charges." Members of the University's Student Fees Policy Committee, which would review any such request to opt out of Daily fees, said the Act was currently under review by University solicitors
and refused to speculate on the legality of the engineers' plans. But Secretary of Senate Sheila Sheldon-Collyer doubted the University would allow the EEGSS to elude the fee levy. She pointed out that Bill 32 allows for students to belong to associations at all levels of the univer sity. In fact, Sheldon-Collyer said the University quesions the very right of EEGSS to exist as an accredited group. She told the Tribune the decision might be appealed by M cGill to the provincial government. She stated that EEGSS did not meet the requirements of the Act since "they're only half a department," re p re se n tin g g ra d u ate but not undergraduate students. She said the University might be unwilling to collect fees for the association. Dean of Students Irwin Gopnik said the administration was reluctant to recognise the official status of EEGSS for fear of setting a precedent for other department associations. He said the University would "clearly have a mess on our hands"if every association demanded that the University collect its own particular fee. EEGSS originally went through accrediation process - which requires a student referendum and approval from a- government agent - in order to have the University administration collect the association's $5 membership fee, said Fraser. Under Bill 32, universities must collect student fees on behalf of an ac credited students' association. H ow ever, the association soon developed grander plans for their newly received offical status. At a general meeting of students held earlier this month, EEGSS passed the motion that its "members not be assessed Daily Publications Society fees," subject to ratification by EEGSS council. The DPS is the publisher of the M cGill Daily. A similar controvesy occurred last year at Concordia University when Engineering and Computer Science students were accredited under the Act and refused to pay fees to the university's federal student government. Fees are currently being collected from these students, although negotiations go on between the two student associa tions. Fraser said the editors of the Daily had been invited before his council to decontinued on page 2