Are BC colleges and universities cheating the system? > NDP blames BC for increased student fees Aaron Guillen Staff Reporter r | Yo most post-secondary students, money is a valuable and rare thing. Besides taking, on average, three to five classes a week, many students work a part-time job and involve themselves in extracurricular activities, all the while attempting to thrift their way to the next paycheque. Recently, a letter from the BC Ministry of Advanced Education has played a hand in allowing colleges and universities to clench a tighter grip on students’ wallets. “Tuition and fees for existing programs and services must not increase more than two per cent per year,” the letter explains. “New mandatory fees may be introduced for new services if there is a clear benefit to students.” This clarification has been scrutinized by the NDP asa means to subtly “sneak” extra fees into students’ tuition by means of “new mandatory fees.” “It’s a sneaky move,” Kathy Corrigan, the party’s education critic, said to CBC News. “They are trying to say they have a two per cent cap at the What's to come of the Ghomeshi case? same time they are sneaking around the corner and allowing them to add a whole bunch of fees that are very clearly not allowed under the policy.” A handful of colleges and universities have recently come under fire after announcing their plans to add mandatory fees in upcoming semesters. According to the Vancouver Sun, five schools have proposed student fees that are above and beyond the two per cent cap—North Island College’s $5 per-credit learning resource fee, Vancouver Island University’s specific $6.27 per-credit student services fee, and Vancouver Community College, with a $26 per-term fee for all students and a staggering $2,000 lab fee for Pharmacy Technician students. While Andrew Wilkinson, Minister of Advanced Education, denied the added fees as a suggested way of bypassing the tuition cap, he claims that they are to be only implemented with an evident intention to benefit students. “We're keeping a very close eye on this to make sure the institutions can justify the fees, because the fees are not permissible where an existing program with an existing cost structure has an existing fee arrangement,” he said to Times Colonist. “It has to be a new benefit to students to justify a new fee.” While North Island College has been able to provide evidence that their students’ money is going towards new counselling, workshops, and recreational activities, Vancouver Island University is battling a war of the words with their student union. Connie Graham, a member of the union, proposes that the university is claiming new services that are being currently provided, with mere expansions. Additionally, Graham said the university is attempting to > UVic professors weigh in on how case may change sex assault perceptions Cayden Johnson The Martlet (University of Victoria) he controversial sexual assault case against Jian Ghomeshi is set to reach averdict on March 24. Three complainants have testified against Ghomeshi on allegations of sexual assault. An additional woman provided further documentation during the trial in support of one complainant. One complainant testified that Ghomeshi punched her in the head and pulled her hair during their relationship. Actress Lucy DeCoutere said that Ghomeshi slapped her without warning and strangled her after a date. Another complainant reported that Ghomeshi unexpectedly grabbed her throat and covered her mouth in a Toronto park. Prior to the trial, Ghomeshi posted a lengthy Facebook status admitting to consensual “rough sex” with an unspecified ex-girlfriend who, he wrote, was set on “vengeance and demonization” by bringing the story forward. Sexual assault cases oftentimes end up as one person’s word against another. The judge in Ghomeshi’s case has the difficult task of deciding a verdict based on the credibility and reliability of the complainants—basically sifting through the perceived legitimacy of their memories. “The prosecution has to provide enough evidence to convince a court or jury or judge that the consent wasn’t given,” said UVic School of Public Health and Social Policy Professor Charlotte Loppie. One central complication in the case is the length of time it took for the complainants to come forward, since the alleged events occurred between 2002 and 2003. Loppie explained that this behavior is not uncommon of sexual assault victims and that some people don’t immediately realize they’ve been sexually assaulted. “Only about 6 per cent of all sexual assaults [of women] ever get reported,” she said, while the figures are even lower for men. “T will sometimes get students, male and female [...] coming to me quite upset and saying [they] didn’t realize [...] what happened to [them] was sexual assault,” said Loppie. A complex digital trail of evidence also follows the Ghomeshi case, including an affectionate letter from DeCoutere to Ghomeshi, written a short time after the alleged assault. One complainant also sent Ghomeshi a photo of herself in a bikini after the alleged events. While this might complicate the narrative, such behaviour is quite common amongst victims of abuse. “You can care about somebody who abuses you,” said Loppie. “Unfortunately [...] legally, [the letters] will have some weight in terms of the Image via www.aux.tv perception of whether the assault has happened.” The Ghomeshi case is just one part of an important sociological conversation around gender inequality in the eyes of the law. UVic Law Professor Maneesha Deckha stresses that there are problems with the law system as a whole. “Feminists would point to the dominant masculinity and otherwise elite practices [and] privileges built systemically into liberal legal norms that oppress and marginalize non- dominant others,” Deckha said. “Law espouses norms that model socially dominant norms.” Image via www.metronews.ca increase the flow of money to counter the lack thereof from the BC government. “They’re getting funding cuts more and more,” she said to Times Colonist. “They’re trying to find a way around it. It’s yet another user fee. It’s things that should be publicly funded being offloaded to students.” Ghomeshi’s lawyer, Marie Henein, has been criticized for the way she cross-examined the witnesses, but Deckha said that this is not new. Deckha explained that “whacking” is an aggressive defence counsel cross- examination practice typically used with sexual assault complainants. The practice “leaves no stone unturned,” and is a “highly gendered practice that feminists and critical scholars have identified as problematic not just from a social justice perspective, but from a professional ethics one.” “Calls to stop this type of cross-examination are increasing and the issue is getting more attention in the legal community,” said Deckha. Despite the criticisms, the trial proceeded as normal and we'll know soon enough how the judge will rule. And though it may not be the legal watershed moment that some are hoping for, Ghomeshi’s case is undoubtedly raising some necessary questions about the perception of sexual assault in the media. Regardless of the verdict, those questions are worth answering.