It’s your call: One click could save you $55 per term in athletics fees

Should students pay for a new athletic facility with a “new” $55/term fee (in addition to the current $73/term fee)?

You will be asked to vote on this question October 19-23, 2009 on webvote at https://webvote.uvic.ca

The Graduate Students’ Society is opposed to this fee increase. Here are some of our reasons:

Is this fee increase legal?

The GSS is concerned that the fee increase is not permitted under BC’s tuition limit policy, which caps increases of tuition and fees for current programs at 2% per year. This new fee will be a 75% fee increase for students.

The GSS has sent UVic a letter (PDF) asking UVIC to account for this, and will post any reply we receive on our campaign site here: http://gss.uvic.ca/2009athletics.htm

Who uses and who pays?

In the January 2009 term alone, contribution by students to the Athletics and Recreation budget was $1,082,939.00—without including additional fees paid by students for intramural, weight room, and program fees.

According to UVIC data for January – March 2009, which assumes average usage of 1-3 visits per week, about 30% of undergraduates and 8% of graduate students are using the Ian Stewart Complex (the most popular recreation facility on campus).

Athletics fees: the goal posts keep moving!

Until UVIC purchased the Ian Stewart Complex (ISC), athletic fees increased at a rate almost identical to inflation. Since the purchase of ISC, students have been paying a greater proportion of the cost for Athletics at UVIC each year. In the past decade, the proportion of the Athletics budget covered by student fees has risen from 20% to 38%.

Mandatory fees can be a benefit—if they are less than market rate

Compare this fee proposal to the U-pass... the U-pass costs one quarter the cost of buying a monthly buss pass. Every student pays in, but the cost is kept lower than market rate. In return, transit improves bus service to Victoria campuses.

Now compare the proposed athletics fee proposal to other recreation passes in Victoria *:

No. of terms	Current fee	New fee
One term	$73	$128
Two Terms	$146	$256
Three Terms	$219	$320*
COMPARE
Sannich Rec student pass	285/year
Oak Bay Rec annual pass	$345/year
YM-YWCA pass - family pass	$444/year $780/year

* graduate students will have the option to opt out of the summer term; summer term will be charged at 50%. 60% of graduate students and 20% of undergraduates pay 3 terms of fees per year.

What are the other options?

UVIC says mandatory student fees need to cover 36.7% of the cost of the building—but what are other options? UVIC’s consultation process suggested selling the Ian Stewart Complex as one revenue source. Other options include bigger donor campaigns, a stronger lobby for government support.

UVIC’s facility analysis indicates UVIC will seek to cover costs of the building with the following revenues:

1. New students Mandatory Fee

2. Program revenues

3. Donors

4. Government funding

5. UVIC contribution

What are the arguments in favour of the fee increase?

UVIC made a presentation to the GSS Grad Council about the proposal. It can be found here.

UVIC’s facility analysis (500 pages) can be found here.

UVIC’s/vikes website supporting the fee increase is here

Student facebook group in support of the fee increase is found on the vikes website here

Visit open houses

Help the campaign

Visit the GSS campaign site, download a poster, learn more: all here

BC September 2009 budget update and graduate students

BC's September budget update makes little mention of graduate school, graduate students or research, although graduate studies is briefly mentioned as one targeted area of expansion in the Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour service plan.

Capital spending is discussed in the budget speech, with $500 million for capital expansion on campuses--$86.4 million is going to UBC's pharmaceutical research facility--which is a drug commercialization facility. The ministry must disclose projects over $50 million, sp presumably the rest of the capital spending falls under that amount. Other major projects mentioned focus on environmental technologies or research, including Okanagan College's Centre for Green Building Technologies ($27.6 million), Energy House project at Northern Lights College ($7.8 million) and 21 million for UNBC's project involving turning waste wood into energy. Indeed, the investment in research and development mentioned in the budget speech is in green energy.

The Ministry's service plan shows an increase in funds directed to post-secondary institutions (5% increase). Bear in mind there is a 2% price index increase over last year, and UVIC is slated to have a 14% increase in graduate enrollement this year. Meanhile there's a 15% cut back to Student Aid BC--this is for ministry spending so whether this will result in cuts to bursaries, and exactly how this will be handled, is not yet clear. But earlier this year, the Pacific Leaders graduate funding was put on hold, and other student support focussed on helping disabled students, nursing students and those needing loan forgiveness was quietly cut in July (see Vancouver Sun article).

Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Development service plan

http://www.bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/2009_Sept_Update/sp/pdf/ministry/almd.pdf

Budget speech

http://www.bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/2009_Sept_Update/speech/Budget%20Speech_Sept_2009.pdf

Tell Me about it: housing crisis for low income Canadians

Social Housing Investment Vital to Canada’s

Low-Income Families

What UVic student doesn't know the trials of finding affordable housing in Victoria? Check out this report release from the Canadian Policy Research Network:

December 6, 2007 – Housing, together with food and shelter, are the necessities of life, yet we know that close to 1.5 million, or roughly 14% of Canadians, a large number being single mothers and children, are in need of adequate shelter. Many are not housed at all.

Many low-income Canadians depend on government commitment to social housing to provide them with affordable housing opportunities, but over the past 15 years overall government support and investment in social housing has declined.

CPRN has successfully partnered with the Social Housing Services Corporation of Ontario (SHSC), the Knowledge Mobilization Unit of York University, and the City of Ottawa (for Infrastructure Canada’s Knowledge Building, Outreach and Awareness Program) to explore a number of critical social housing issues: strengthening housing governance, effectively considering social inclusion in design, the relationship between non-profit organizations and social housing, the challenges of city-regions and sustainable affordable rental housing, and social lives in social housing.

A Safer Haven: Innovations for Improving Social Housing in Canada by CPRN Acting Assistant Director Nathalie Pierre is a synthesis of key findings from the six research papers produced by CPRN research interns through the partnership with SHSC, York University and the City of Ottawa. The research findings demonstrate that social housing plays a central role in stabilizing people’s lives and helping them access social services that promote community integration and individual and family well-being. This purpose should be recognized fully by governments to strengthen and expand social housing in Canada.

To read or download A Safer Haven, click here. For a list of the six research papers and links to read or download, click here.

A Message from CPRN President Sharon Manson Singer

Dear Friends of CPRN,

On behalf of the CPRN Board of Directors and staff, I want to thank you for your continued support in the work of CPRN over the past year.

During 2007, CPRN reorganized following the federal government’s decision to eliminate its core funding for our research and public policy dialogue program. We adopted a new business model and, most importantly, we are developing an exciting new research framework, Connecting with Canadians, which will be our focus over the next three to five years. Connecting with Canadians is based on what Canadians expect from government, business and community organizations and what they believe, as citizens, we should give back to society. It is rooted in the values and priorities of Canadians as expressed to us in deliberative dialogues over the last several years.

While these activities were underway, CPRN continued its commitment to high quality socio-economic policy research and dialogue. We produced reports and conducted dialogues on a number of critical issues including productivity, the challenges of youth transitioning from high school to the labour market and youth disengagement in our political process.

Through this work, the interest in CPRN’s work grew tremendously! There were almost 2 million downloads of our publications in 2007, an increase of 15% over 2006. All our publications are available free to the non-profit sector, academic researchers and government decision-makers across Canada as well as around the world. The continued growth and success of our Web-based distribution of research reports and information positions CPRN as the leading socio-economic policy think tank in Canada!

We are pleased that CPRN’s voice and high quality research continues to be valued. We are committed to strengthening and expanding its presence in 2008. To that end, I hope you will consider making a donation to CPRN. Click here to make your tax-deductible gift by credit card via a secure site. An e-receipt will be sent to you. Or, you can send a cheque to CPRN, 214-151 Slater Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1P 5H3.

If you or your organization would like more information on how you can support CPRN in its work, please contact info@cprn.org.

If you have already made a gift in support of our work, a heartfelt thank you. And to our new donors, thank you!

Thank you for your continued support.

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Sharon Manson Singer, President
Canadian Policy Research Networks