eee “page 12 * -cont’d from page 1 ? bof the cost of ‘necessary’ budget items that conform to depart- i ent policy, the government would provide the remaining 60 ‘ But McGeer did not actually suggest that colleges raise tuit- on fees, Wootton said. » Wootton maintained that tuition fee increases at Douglas College are ‘‘improbably’’, but the final decision rests with €ollege Council. > Counci! Chairman John ‘Sutherland said last Monday uition hikes at Douglas College “would only take place with much regret,’’ and Capilano College interim chairwoman Hilda Rizun said last week tuition fee increase$ there are a possibility.”’ » Rizun said the mechanism for faising fees was ‘‘confusing, but the avenue is still there.”’ ¢ Wootton described the mech- btnism as ‘‘perfectly legal’’, but -BCAC executive secretary -frank Beinder said last Tuesday he didn't ‘‘think it could be done under the Act.”’ * The new interpretation of the cost-sharing formula between [the provincial government and ‘the municipalities appears to have been first suggested in an Oct. 13 letter to colleges from McGeer. In the letter, McGeer sug- gested raising tuition fees as a cost-sharing measure, and that colleges ‘*‘make every dollar count." Deputy Education Minister Walter Hardwick said last Oct- ober that though tuition fees at colleges do not constitute col- jege revenue: ‘‘That is one reading of the Act, and I’m reading the Act to see if it can be rectified.’”’ ~ Hardwick added that the cost- sharing formula will not neces- sarily be changed in the new Colleges Act, expected to be completed later this year. BCAC Executive Secretary Frank Beinder said colleges are unlikely to consider tuition fee increases unless university fee increases are ‘‘substantial’’. According to the UCBC 1977 budget report, substantial fee hikes are necessary to maintain 1976 standards. Last year, an altered tuition fee formula was proposed at Douglas College that favored part time students. The fee structure proposed altered fees from $10 per credit, with a maximum fee of $125, to $9 per credit, eliminating the ceiling. Approximately half of Douglas College students attend part-time. : But the altered fee formula would be particularly hard for 30me career program students, whose courses amount to as much as 20 credits. SOME ALTERNATIVES Despite the worsening eco- nomic situation of most B.C. students and decreasing acces- sibility to post-secondary edu- cation, a Jan. 28 BCAC report submitted to the provincial gov- ernment recommends higher college tuition fees. ‘Users should pay for ser- vices,’’ the report recommends, adding: ‘‘People appreciate what they pay for.”’ But BCSF treasurer Pam Wil- - lis disagrees. Willis said Feb. 14 that **accessibility to education is already limited and increased tuition fees will only worsen the situation.”’ Willis added that increasing student grants and loans to alleviate the situation caused by tuition increases suggested by the BCAC, is ‘‘an oppressive band-aid solution."’ Willis added that she dis- agreed with forcing students ‘to borrow a lot of money’’ to put themselves through a post- secondary education. The Ontario Federation of. Students suggested last month eliminating the federal income deduction on tuition fees as a the other press way to eliminate tuition fee increases in that province. The OFS charged that the deduction mainly benefits upper income students while low-in- come students receive little or no benefit from the option. THE NATIONAL SCENE The federal government pro- vides approximately 50 per cent of the cost of post-secondary education through the Fiscal Arrangements Act. According to government spending estimates tabled in the House of Commons Feb. 16, this year's federal contribution to post-secondary education will rise only slightly. ' Although the total cash pay- ments to the provinces will increase by almost 40 per cent, tax point transfers will decrease by almost the same degress. In a recent meeting with Douglas College principal George Wootton, Education Minister Pat McGeer offered an ironic illustration in an effort to explain an aspect of government policy on colleges. McGeer said that colleges must retain their regional char- acter, and that despite cutbacks and budget restraints, colleges must keep their ‘‘arms’” exten- ded into the community, and must not ‘‘withdraw towards the core.” He said the natural reaction of any organism in a crisis situat- ion is to recoil into itself, and to withdraw its limbs from the environment. McGeer said colleges must resist this behaviour by main- taining satellite campuses and community involvement, rather than protesting the institution’s core. But the economic crisis ex- perienced in the western nations over the last decade has inclu- ded exactly this behaviour. Peripheral priorities: univer- sal education, free health care, low-cost transportation and communication, are being abandoned in favor of protecting the core--namely those whose interests are served in main- taining the status quo. As evidence to this tendency,§ cutbacks and tuition fee increa- ses are diminishing the access- ibility to post-secondary educat- ff ion in almost every province in Canada. In Ontario, at least 4,000 students - participated in mass rallies and demonstrations that culminated in a Feb. 10 walkout to protest $100 university and $75 college tuition hikes. Despite an Ontario govern-| ment survey that concluded more than half of Ontario’s population opposed the tuition increases, the Department of Education is standing firm on the hikes. Tuition increases for foreign students in Ontario has been set for next year at 250 per cent. AROUND THE WORLD . The same tendency is ap- pearing in the United Kingdom and in the United States. Tuition fees at London's School of Economics’ were re- cently increased by 1,000 per cent. Recently, a two-week oc- cupation of the school by 50 students resulted in a police charge that broke up the occu- pation and resulted in a number of arrests. For the first time in its 129 year history, New. York city’s university system charged ad- mission last Fall. Yearly tuition costs ranging from $775 to $925 forced ap- proximately 30,000 students to abandon hopes for a post-sec- ondary education, according to! an October report of Liberation News Service. According to a report last month by the American College Press Service, President Jimmy Carter’s 1977 higher education budget effectively reduces cam- pus-based student aid by $582 million, and reduces the actual number of grants by $885,000. $332 million has been cut \ 1 Pre March 7, 1977 i ov Volume III Number 6