July 2004 Tuition Hikes Eating Into Student Budgets: Survey Food Banks Link Increased Use to Higher Fees Agnes Gulbinowicz The Peak, Simon Fraser University BURNABY, BC (CUP)—The starving student is much more than a tired cliché, say two national advocacy groups. The results of a survey released by the Canadian Association of Food Banks (CAFB) and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) suggest there is a strong link between rising tuition costs and an increase in the use of campus food banks. Forty-six of the 51 campuses across the country that house student food banks responded to the Campus HungerCount 2004 survey. Ninety percent of respondents cited the rising costs of post-secondary education as the reason a food bank was opened on their campus. The survey also found the average year student food banks 4 | OtherPress began operating was 1996, halfway through the 1991-2001 decade, which saw a 135.4 percent hike in tuition fees across Canada. The tuition increases corresponded to the federal government's unprece- dented cuts to social programs, including post-sec- ondary education. “We strongly believe that the rise in campus- based food banks is the result of a crisis in the fund- ing of post-secondary education, and it is an issue that must be addressed by whichever party forms the government on June 28,” said Charles Seiden, CAFB executive director, in a press release. Negar Behmardi, coordinator of the Simon Fraser University Food Bank, agrees. “I believe if the federal government puts more money into post-secondary education, then we might be able to decrease the number of food bank users,” Behmardi said. _ Since joining the SFU Food Bank in 2001, Behmardi has seen a dramatic rise in the number of students using the food bank’s services. In 2002, the year of the first 30 percent fee increase at SFU since the BC government ended a tuition freeze, the number of users jumped from 333 to 738. “As tuition fees increase, so does the need for the food bank,” Behmardi said. But increased tuition costs are not the only factor contributing to student hunger; a lack of financial support is compounding the problem. The survey found 80 percent of student food bank users sup- port themselves through loans and jobs, suggesting loan sizes are inadequate to meet students’ most basic needs. According to the Canada Student Loans Program, the average undergraduate student receiy- ing maximum loan amounts has $3,500 of unmet need. This figure rises to $6,500 for master’s stu- dents. Although the situation is dire, it seems to be improving. In 2003, students made up 3.4 percent of all food bank clients in Canada, down sharply from 9.6 percent the year before. The same year at SFU, the number of food bank clients decreased to 527. : But the CASA and the CAFB warn that the lower figures do not necessarily reflect a more positive reality. There is a strong possibility that students who are most likely to use food banks are simply being left out of the post-secondary system due to the ever-increasing costs. Both groups are urging the federal government to increase post-secondary education funding by $3.9 billion annually to reduce the burden of university operations costs passed on to students. The organi- sations are calling for a restoration of funding to pre-1995 levels, before the unprecedented cuts to transfer payments to the provinces for social pro- grams were made.