Engineering students consider raising tuition

Council looks at referendum to address underfunding

TESSA VANDERHART STAFF

The faculty of engineering has frozen its operational budget to pay its deficit, and the engineering students’ society is discussing a referendum on raising tuition to solve the problem.

The faculty of engineering needs another $3 million-$3.5 million in revenue to maintain the standards set by other universities, as reported in the Winnipeg Free Press.

University of Manitoba Engineering Society (UMES) senior stick (council president) Stephen Woodrow said that the faculty has had an operational deficit for the past five or six years.

“Up to this point, up to just before the Christmas break, the university had always sort of said, ‘we’ve got some extra money, and we’ll cover this, this time.’ And unfortunately the university is unable to this time.”

As a result, Woodrow said, the faculty has had to freeze operating accounts — which fund operations such as furnishing buildings and supplementing professors’ research — to cover the deficit.

The faculty of engineering alerted UMES to this deficit, and has put forward a proposal on raising fees to be discussed at UMES council on Feb. 20.

And when the Canadian Engineering Accreditaiton Board (CEAB), which ensures the quality of an engineering education, visited in October, concerns were raised about the operating budget of the faculty. Woodrow said that engineering dean Doug Ruth has an interim report on the accreditation status of the faculty, though the results are not yet public.

“It’s extremely, extremely unlikely that we would ever lose accrediation — but we don’t want to jeopardize that,” Woodrow said.

He also noted that the deficit is leading to concerns with keeping professors and quality of education. A shortage of TAs in the faculty often leads to only one or two questions being marked from assignments, and first-year fluids laboratory classes play videos because the faculty cannot afford the equipment to do labs.

“Unless the tuition increase was staggering — I don’t even know how much it would have to be — we obviously wouldn’t be able to reverse some of these situations, but it would probably enable the faculty to improve things a little bit, but also cover that deficit, which is the biggest concern right now — it’s jeopardizing the faculty’s ability to operate.”

The Engineering and Information Technology Complex, completed in 2005, cost $150 million — including $50 million from the provincial government.

Woodrow said that the CEAB previously expressed concern about the engineering building, but even with a new building, “unfortunately, parts of the space aren’t completely furnished” — including laboratory classrooms without equipment in them.

“Ultimately, it will be up to students whether they want to pay more,” said Woodrow.

Other faculties have increased tuition since fees were frozen by the provincial government in 2000, including management, law, and pharmacy.

Diane McGifford, provincial minister of advanced education, set out five criteria for raising fees, as reported in the Manitoban on Feb. 12, 2003.

For a program to raise fees: the increase must not limit program accessibility; the increase must have no adverse effects on the Manitoba labour market; the program seeking an increase must have a high graduation rate with many students finding highincome employment; the program must already have high quality and cost requirements; and there must be demonstrated student support for the increase.

In November 2004, faculty of management students voted to increase tuition from $134 per credit hour to $284 per credit hour, according to news reports in the Manitoban.

UMSU and the CFS opposed the tuition increase.

Management students rejected the same tuition increase, of 112 per cent, in November 2003.

In January 2003, faculty of law students voted to increase tuition by 91 per cent, from $4,400 to $8,300. The referendum was the first of its kind since the tuition fee freeze in 2001, and 67 per cent of students voted in favour of the increase, with 86 per cent voter turnout.

In 2001, the faculty of pharmacy increased tuition by $1,500 without a referendum. One of two pharmacy students’ association senior sticks signed a letter of approval, then-UMSU president Nicholas Louizos told the Manitoban.

In 1977, in a now-famous story, engineering students called on the university administration to provide more funding for their faculty when it faced losing accreditation. Students held a large snowball fight in front of the administration building with banners of a red lion — red to represent the “red tape” engineering faced — which later became the official mascot of engineering students, according to the UMES website.

Engineering students vote every three years on whether to continue funding the Engineering Endowment Fund, to ensure that every student gets to vote during the completion of their degree. In the November 2004 referendum, 80 per cent of students voted in favour of maintaining the fund; 20 per cent of engineering students participated in the referendum.