By: Anonymous
With the recent cuts UPEI has made, I have to wonder how this will benefit students. A Vice President position was cut [Editor’s Note: The Vice President Academic], and 7 management positions were affected. The VP position alone will save the school a significant amount of money per year but if UPEI is so pressed for money I have to wonder at the large fancy signs on the front of CASS now, advertising the re-amalgamation of the Computer Sciences and Math departments. I have to wonder at the new Engineering building which is supposed to have a roof garden, but won’t be growing food. I have to wonder why when building a wind turbine for the engineering building, extra money wasn’t put into building one that could contribute power to the whole school, and cut electricity bills. Although I also have to wonder why it’s April and the heat is still blasting in some of the buildings.
The number of sessional positions UPEI has seems to be increasing, while courses are decreasing. We haven’t seen an increase in the number of counsellors at UPEI in a few years, but the wait times keep getting longer. Personally, I would rather see UPEI invest the $20,000+ they invested in the student support program into a part-time counsellor, especially since Health PEI offers a 24hr 1-800 line now.
I know that this is probably an extremely unpopular opinion, but I wouldn’t mind an increase in tuition, if we saw an increase in services to students as a result. If it meant more classes, more consistency, or more support services. UPEI has some of the lowest tuition in the country and while it is great that it more affordable, at what point do we decide we’re not getting a quality education as a result? There are a lot of problems that come with increasing tuition in the current system. It would make it more inaccessible to many students. At what point should the government step in and do something? We see a rise in tuition, a rise in the cost of living… not a significant rise in minimum wage, or in loan allocations.
Something isn’t working, and it’s not getting any better.
