Post-secondary students, take up your swords!

Sarah M. W. Bezan

For a growing number of post-secondary students, the discussion of our scandalous rates of tuition has now been completely and utterly exhausted. Weightlessly floating through the black vacuity of space, it has finally burst into a ring of orange and faded into oblivion.

Fatigued as we are of hearing about the beastly fee of our post-secondary education, many students have settled into a complacent slump. To the fortune of all such students, however, I have recently become enlightened. Students, take up your swords! The war on outrageously high tuition fees has been revived!

As the newly self-proclaimed leader of this magnificent battle, I feel compelled to explain. While eating my cereal the other day, I fell into a marvelous trance.

I had been spiritedly meditating upon the values of the social institutions of our glorious home and native land, when I had an epiphany of sorts. It came upon me much like the way a bird flies into a window: not exactly with grace, but with implied and somewhat determined force.

And so, my prophetic message: education is the facilitator of human fellowship. It is what draws us out of our microcosmic reality and into the fantastically expansive world. As an invitation of unification, it is an offer to be more together. Education offers purpose, freedom, hope. It can slash ignorance, cultivate empathy and open our eyes to the weight of our responsibilities to the environment and to other human beings.

With impassioned conviction and a revitalized perspective, I hastily picked up my telephone and dialed. “Hi. Is this Laura?”

“Hi,” she answered.

Introducing Laura, and part B of my epic social awakening: An international student, Laura is as bright and beautiful as her home state of California. She loves to laugh, invite me over for chocolate cheesecake, and partner up with me for Dutch Blitz tournaments (even when we don’t win).

Even further, Laura is zealously determined to complete her bachelor of arts. Having only just received her permanent residency status this past November, Laura previously enjoyed paying more than double for all of her courses under international student status.

Newly married to a Canadian citizen in August of 2004 (her husband also happens to be a student, enrolled in a master’s program in divinity), Laura faced an overwhelming financial battle. Without a social insurance number, she was not eligible to apply for a student loan, nor was she allowed to work in an attempt to curb her mounting expenses.

Laura’s undeniably wonderful husband, Derek, worked 40 hours a week at a Starbuck’s and graded papers for professors (on top of a full course load) after a student loan for which he applied failed to come through.

The saving grace for her in making it through was a small loophole in the system: working on-campus. Helping in the cafeteria, intercepting phone calls for the administrative staff, cutting the lawn. She took every job she could, and she fought with unwavering perseverance.

Understandably, Laura was relieved to finally receive her residency status. Now, Laura tells me, she pays not even three-quarters the amount of tuition today taking five courses as she did taking three courses under international student status.

So then I began to wonder. You would not fight a battle for the sake of looking smashing in your armour, nor would you waltz onto the battlefield because you thought you’d get some fresh air. Why has Laura worked so hard?

Laura openly shared two of the best reasons I have ever heard.

“It allows me the opportunity to connect more intimately on an intellectual level with my husband,” she answered honourably.

That’s beautiful! My breakfast epiphany flooded back. Most assuredly, the idea that education facilitates fellowship is perfectly merited.

Laura also explained a moment she had with her great-grandmother (who did not complete grade school) about South-east Asia’s December 2004 tsunamis.

“She always felt lost when it came to world affairs. She didn’t understand why they couldn’t help themselves; why others had a responsibility to lend a hand.”

“I think,” Laura continued, “that having an education gives you a framework for influencing the world. It gives you the tools you need to understand and respond.”

I hung up feeling quite invigorated. Indeed, post-secondary education is well worth the struggle: its value is incontestable.

And yet, why must we struggle at all? Painting houses, flipping greasy burgers, answering phones, sodding lawns, planting trees — how hard have you worked to be where you are? Or, how excited are you to finish your degree with about $25,000 of debt staring you in the face?

Wrong, all wrong. The system has gone screwy! The time has come once again to take up arms and fight the injustice!

Sarah M. W. Bezan. is a first-year English student at the University of Winnipeg.