Students get inspired to take a stand after presentation on tuition rates
Andrew Meade / The Brunswickan
The Occupy Tuition Facebook group already has more than 250 members.
January 25, 2012 6:00 AM ADT
With New Brunswick students now paying the highest tuition in the country, two St. Thomas students are determined to have student voices heard and push for change.
After attending a lecture called Occupy Tuition, a part of a series of lectures about the Occupy Movement on campus, students Sarah Hunt and Alexandra Cole got inspired.
“The things he said really got to us. It really brought the point home. So we decided that we needed to do something about it,” Cole said.
Hunt and Cole created a Facebook group called Occupy Tuition, a group that now has more than 265 members. The goal of the group is to get students engaged and to organize events and plans for action.
The group’s first event took place Tuesday at the Maritime Forestry Complex, where Minster of Finance Blaine Higgs met with students to hear their opinions.
Though the provincial government decided to raise tuition this year despite last year’s student protests, Hunt says it’s important for students to keep pushing.
“I think perseverance is key. If we keep driving the message home, they can’t ignore us forever, even if it takes three years … and the more people we get, is strength in numbers,” Hunt said.
So far, Hunt and Cole say they have received a mostly positive response from people about the group, and they try to use any negative feedback as an opportunity to explain their cause.
“We have had some negative comments, but if they had any ground, or an actual argument or point to make, we were able to show them what we were talking about and why it’s an issue,” Cole said.
Hunt and Cole also said although the Facebook group is called Occupy Tuition, there is no direct relation between the group and the Occupy Movement.
“We are not really the Occupy Movement, we are separate from that. We respect what they did. We thought it was important, but we are our own facet. We have one really important point we want to drive home, where as the Occupy Movement was very broad and wanted to change everything. We’re focusing on tuition, because that’s what we know a lot about, and we think that we can do something about it,” Cole said.
Hunt and Cole said that even if their voices are not heard, tuition hikes will be a reoccurring issue that will not go unprotested.
“This is something that the issue is not going to go away by itself either. Even if no one listens to us and no one hears us, there are going to be people down the road who are going to bring this up again and again, until someone finally decides that something needs to be done,” Cole said.
After Tuesday’s event, Hunt and Cole said they would like to focus on getting more students involved in the cause. They said it’s important for students to get proactive, because tuition increase is an issue that affects not only students, but those around them, including their families.
“This is our time. We are the ones who can change this. We’re students. They’re going to listen to us. They’re not going to listen to a bunch of adults. They’re going to listen to us. It’s our voice. So if nobody steps up, then nothing is going to ever change,” Hunt said.
Add a comment