Freezing tuition: pouring cold ice on quality By Sushank Saha 4th Year Mechanical Engineer December 10, 2008 While a university is as much an institution of public service, it is on the whole a sort of a business. A university cannot sustain itself unless it is profitable and the profits reaped put back into institution. Of course the word profit here need not be taken literally. One means to say that the budget should be such that their losses are truncated and eventually brought to null, the basic income-expenditure model.
All of us understand though where we, the students, are coming from though. Students demand and deserve quality, and rightly so. Unfortunately, poised we are such that one often cannot argue for such a tuition freeze in view of these demands. These are tough times and we need to recognize that, especially so for our own university.
With enrolment growth not meeting targets, revenue growth has been a marginal 0.8 per cent. Expenditure growth on the other hand is a whopping five per cent. Do we really want to see our possibly stubborn, possibly short-sighted view of things take us lower than we already are? >> | Proposing systemic change to solve a political crisis By Sara Rooseboom
3rd Year Pre-Social Work December 10, 2008 We are in the midst of a political crisis, people.
Six weeks ago we spent roughly $300 million on an election that landed us in the same position we were already in. This election represented the lowest turnout of voters since the 1800s. This election left us with virtually the same parliamentary make up as before, with the same Prime Minister. Now, that government is falling apart, again, and Canadians are stuck not knowing what to do.
Our democracy is showing signs of failure. Low voter turnout, campaigns based on mud-slinging and attack ads rather than the issues, no strong and charismatic leaders in any of the parties, back-room deals, heightened tension between the West and the East, increased tension between French and English Canada, a divided left-center, extreme divisive partisanship not only in parliament but within the electorate, instability of parliament ... I could go on.
The point is this: our system is failing us. So what should we do? >>  | | Campus Kiss | | |
