North Bay college and university students picket downtown over soon to be rising tuition fees.A small group of Nipissing University and Canadore College students picketed outside of Nipissing MPP Monique Smith’s Main Street constituency office Friday afternoon. They were protesting the imminent removal of the province’s two year tuition freeze and subsequent tuition hikes.
“It’s important to educate the public about rising fees.” said Tom Condotta, Nipissing University’s student union VP External. Condotta said the student picketers were there to send a message to Smith to take to Queen’s Park, that the tuition freeze removal will make it more unaffordable for Ontario students to attend university.
The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada lists Nipissing University’s 2005 – 2006 graduate tuition fees at $5,610 and undergraduate tuition fees at $3,950.
“Students play a vital role in the economy of North Bay. They will leave if they can’t afford to stay here.” Condotta warned. He said college and university student unions met with MPPs, including Smith, December 5th, 2005 at Queen’s Park to address the issue but came away frustrated, feeling their concerns weren’t taken seriously.
Smith called that an unfair assessment. “I think they too have to be realistic, you know, we cannot keep a tuition freeze forever, that the costs of a quality post-secondary education continue to grow.” She added that the province has provided $115 million to Ontario’s colleges and universities in compensation for the tuition freeze and the government’s Reaching Higher plan will be investing another $6.2 billion over the next five years, part of which will go to post secondary education student assistance.
Condotta says he hopes to meet with Smith to discuss the issue further, however no plans to do so have been made yet.