EDMONTON – University and college students, faculty and staff are rallying outside the Alberta legislature Friday afternoon to protest cuts to post-secondary education.
“People are very upset. People are very mad and justifiably so,” said Brent Kelly, a fourth-year political science student at the University of Alberta. “Academics and non-academic staff are potentially losing their jobs. Administrators have to be the bad guys again and students are going to have to deal with huge cuts, with massive increases to class sizes. The reality is less people are going to be able to go to university.”
The spring provincial budget didn’t give post-secondary institutions a previously promised two-per-cent increase to operating budgets. Instead, the U of A must deal with a $43-million loss in its base operating grant. All faculties must immediately cut 1.5 per cent from their budgets, and are being asked to consider the impact of a 10- to 20-per-cent cut in the next two years.
“Essentially, a tenth of the organization is going to have to be cut because of the action,” Kelly said. “With the government going on about diversification, the fact that they’re cutting post-secondary education is paradoxical.”
Solutions were discussed at a Friday afternoon “coalition assembly” at the U of A campus. Kelly said the plan was to have representatives from the students’ union, the graduate student association and the academic- and non-academic staff associations state their case. Discussions about how to move forward with letter-writing campaigns or other lobbying efforts would follow.
From there, the group marched over the High Level Bridge to rally in front of the legislature at 4:30 p.m. Kelly said the protesters would stick to the sidewalks, but had notified police in case traffic is affected.
“The goal is to build links and make it into a movement,” he said. As of Friday morning, more than 10,000 people, including college students, had been invited through Facebook to take part in the rally. Some 700 had said they would attend, including representatives from EdStake, a group with high-school students that wants to have more say in government decisions about education issues.
“It’s gained incredible momentum,” Kelly said.
Minister of Advanced Education, Thomas Lukaszuk has been in Vietnam volunteering.
In a phone interview with Global News Friday afternoon, Lukaszuk said he’s not surprised students are demonstrating because they are passionate about the University. He said he’s happy because it shows Alberta’s young people are socially and politically engaged.
“I know there’s anxiety and I appreciate that students are concerned but we will work through all that,” he said.
“I have already met with most student groups. I have assured them that they will not see any tuition increases as a result of this particular budget.”
Lukaszuk added that specific financing decisions will be made by individual institutions.
“I have been very clear to all presidents that I want them to focus on administrations. I want them to focus on duplication and replication of programs and services. I want them to focus on bringing administration together between schools.”
“First, let’s look at savings there, and then, if we have to look at student programs, let’s look at programs that are being simply replicated and don’t necessarily bring additional value to the system,” Lukaszuk said.
With files from Global News
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