Science students rescued: ancillary fees frozen
April 8, 2010 12:13 PM ADT
The provincial government has decided to freeze ancillary fees for the 2010-2011 school year.
Donald Arseneault, minister of post-secondary education, training and labour, confirmed the decision with UNBSU president Jon O’Kane by telephone from the provincial legislature last week and encouraged him to spread the word, O’Kane said.
The decision to freeze ancillary fees came after an extensive period of lobbying by the UNB Student Union in response to the administration’s plan to implement an ancillary fee for science and math students. The proposed fees were announced in February and would have totaled $260 for the average first year science student. The fees would also have applied to engineering and business students taking first year math.
The SU passed a motion in late January to lobby at the provincial level to gain control over ancillary fees. Council agreed that ancillary fees are unfair, especially during a tuition freeze when fees are supposed to be frozen.
“[After the science fees were announced] we started having conversations with people in government talking university funding in general, but about how these ancillary fees are the sneaky way of indirectly raising tuition during a tuition freeze,” O’Kane said on Monday.
He called the decision “timely,” because the board of governors will soon be meeting to finalize budget decisions.
O’Kane said the province has agreed to supplement the income the ancillary fees would have brought in for the university. The province will be including the ancillary fees in the funds they’ve dedicated along with the tuition freeze and the university’s operating grant.
The SU president called the decision “fantastic news.”
“This is a great example of legislators listening…We were getting a lot of positive feedback on the idea, but nothing had been confirmed…People listened, it worked and luckily we won’t see any fees go up next year,” O’Kane said.
O’Kane also said members of this year’s council and council for the coming year are excited about the province’s decision.
At the time of the decision, the science ancillary fees were the only fees announced. O’Kane said he was unsure if any other fees were planned, but that science students especially seem thrilled about the removal of the proposed fees.
O’Kane was unsure about the future of ancillary fees on campus, but said a precedent has been set for future years.
“It’s a victory for now, but there is still a lot of work to be done to make sure that it’s a sustained victory and that ancillary fees join the conversation regulation,” he said.
The SU has put forward a proposal to different levels of government to use an Ontario university model of managing fees in which the province regulates tuition rates and ancillary fees are under student control.
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