Of hotdogs and men
A day of inaction
Michael Silicz, Staff
We’re all creatures of habit. Being in my sixth year at the University of Manitoba, I have become accustomed to certain things happening at specific times of the year. In fact, I’ve come to rely on the precise timing of annual events in order to judge how much school is left in the year. For example, beer gardens in the quad mark the beginning of every new school year, whereas the career fair means Christmas is over and we’re in January. Like a prisoner counting down the days until his release, I use these yearly events to gauge just how much more school separates me from a glorious summer filled with beer, beaches and golf. (There’s only seven more weeks!)
But this year, something different happened. Something changed. Something that I’ve come to rely upon happening did not occur. Come early February, I have grown accustomed to a certain annual event taking place. To my chagrin, I found myself for the first time in six years asking a question I never ever once thought would need to be asked: “Where are my free hotdogs?”
As veteran students know, February is the time of year that the University of Manitoba Students’ Union holds their annual tuition freeze rally. For most, the Day of Action is a time of protest, opposition, and activism. It’s a time for students to feel important as they tell their premier and prime minister of the day to keep university costs down. And most of all, it is the time for UMSU to justify their existence as beneficial to the student body.
In fact, the only legacy left on campus of a decade-long campaign is half of a torn-down poster: a metaphor of a short-sighted crusade that has saved current students money to the detriment of future students.
But come early February, I was shocked — the Day of Action did not occur! No buses to take eager protesters (happy to skip out on class) downtown to the Legislature. No traffic jams around the University of Manitoba Administration Building. No mass of bodies protesting and fighting for the provincial (and federal) government to better fund post-secondary education. These are the things that the tuition-freeze campaign fought for and attracted countless students to the general tuition-freeze cause.
But not me. No, sir. To me, February’s tuition freeze campaign was never about protesting the rising costs of education. From day one at the U of M, I often wondered how keeping tuition prices capped made sense. As I learned more and more about politics, society, history and economics, I grew more and more skeptical of the economics behind the freeze. But never did I speak out against it publicly. Because for me, early February was about one thing and one thing only — free hot dogs. That’s right, delicious, juicy hot dogs for all the protesters skipping class and making a difference. And for that I was thankful and remained quiet. My acquiescence had a price — a pretty cheap one, too — to keep me silent, all I ever wanted was my February hot dog.
Thus no longer will I remain silent. After six years of being told over and over again of the importance of the tuition freeze, I am aghast as to how the issue died overnight. With not even a whimper, the campaign that has jousted countless presidents into office, has wasted so much Manitobanink, and has even brought us into the fold of the Canadian Federation of Students, MShas simply disappeared. No mention of the campaign exists on the UMSU website, and the CFS is just as silent. In fact, the only legacy left on campus of a decade-long tuition freeze campaign is half of a torn-down poster: a metaphor of a short-sighted crusade that has saved current students money to the detriment of future students.
It makes one sit back and wonder just how important the tuition freeze is if not even UMSU fights for it anymore. Perhaps UMSU has realized what seemed so obvious long ago — interfering in the market to hold down prices does far more harm than good in the long run. Maybe now UMSU can focus their political clout and mobilization on improving the U of M in other ways, instead of rigging weekly Manitobanmasterdebates about the usefulness of UMSU. And that task shouldn’t be hard if tuition prices finally rise and the desperately needed funds to improve our school become available.
Instead of remaining complicity hypocritical through their silence, UMSU should be all over campus advocating why the tuition freeze fight has been abandoned and what it intends to do about it. Is the end of the Day of Action a good thing or bad thing now in their eyes? Have they abandoned the plank completely? If they wish to earn back the hearts of students, they need to be forthcoming, which is especially important in context of the upcoming UMSU elections. And failing that, there’s one sure way UMSU can regain at least my apathetic support: hand out some free hot dogs.
