Posted by admin on March 13th, 2010
As reported by journalism students at University of King’s College in Halifax, a very small group of students at St. Francis Xavier University have started a Facebook cause to petition their university to change its practice of automatically appointing the Roman Catholic bishop of Antigonish as chancellor of the university.
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Posted by admin on March 13th, 2010
Last week, Statistics Canada released the Consumer Price Index for 2009 showing inflation in Canada for last year averaging 1.3 per cent. This report, which very few students (or sometimes parents) pay attention to, has the greatest impact on student fees of any Statistics Canada measure - it is the rate used by most universities to decide ancillary fee increases.
At first glance, the CPI report is great news for students, with the 2009 yearly rate lowest in British Columbia at 0.4 per cent and highest at 3.0 per cent in P.E.I. and New Brunswick , scheduled increases to indexed student fees will be at an all-time low in some parts of the country.
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Posted by admin on March 13th, 2010
The Queen’s Journal reports that a Queen’s University student wishes to create a new $70 opt-out fee to help the university overcome a budget deficit.
The student who is proposing the fee, Morgan Campbell, told The Journal the fee would “go towards the operating budget, such as paying of TAs, maintenance of rooms, and provision of teaching materials.”
The Journal did a good job in covering a relevant issue for its readership – the problem the university has filling its budget gap. Read more »
Posted by admin on March 13th, 2010
The clock is ticking and the question is if anyone at Queen’s Park takes action in the next ten days to prevent a strike at Ontario’s community colleges.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents full-time instructors at Ontario’s public colleges, announced a February 11 strike deadline at a news conference today.
Interestingly, the union has moderated its rhetoric and is even willing to accept binding arbitration to prevent a strike. “First and foremost, we want to reach a negotiated settlement,” OPSEU bargaining chair Ted Montgomery said in a news release. “If the Colleges won’t bargain that, we are willing to send all our outstanding issues to binding arbitration. The Colleges, however, must agree.” Read more »
Posted by admin on March 13th, 2010
An interesting thing happened this week in Ontario – an opposition critic brought a potential problem to the government’s attention and the Premier didn’t dismiss the critic’s suggestion to alleviate it.
Ontario’s post-secondary education critic Jim Wilson warned this week that an unprecedented increase in adults applying to Ontario’s community colleges will cause an enrolment crisis if the government does not act immediately to meet the demand. He suggested a novel approach: how about using closed factories and vacant storefronts? Read more »