Please Save our Starving Schools!

Yeah. Ok. Whatever.

Before I post this story from the Star today, I need to premise it. When reading this story, remember that York university makes almost as much income from parking fees as it does from tuition (for those without a calculator or access to York's books, that's a lot). Also, this is the institution that recently poured approximately $10 million dollars into a new stadium for the Argos.

I received a call last night from a student of Glendon College representing the Alumni Association. She asked if I had seen their recent letter (which of course, was asking for money). I said yes. She asked if I was interested in donating a monthly amount to them. I replied "No. I just gave Glendon College $35,000 in tuition a few years ago. So maybe I'll pay that back first, then we'll talk." She indicated that Glendon students may need money now. This got me angry. I indicated that the desperate students should be using their student government to get more cash from the apparently affluent Keele campus (remember, they have 10 million bucks to drop on a stadium, and enough money to sell land WAY below value). She told me it wasn't the Keele campus' fault. For someone like me, who was involved in just about everything at Glendon, this excuse doesn't pan... but I could see there was no winning this argument. I indicated I was not in any financial situation to be donating money to the College, which finally made her stop asking.

To be honest, I feel bad for her, and Glendon College overall. For those of you that don't know, Glendon College is a world-class institution. Small class sizes, a beautiful campus, and excellent faculty. And, it is more or less completely ignored by the Keele Campus. Sometimes this is good, like giving the faculty and the students the freedom a liberal arts school deserves. Sometimes it is bad, like the complete and utter lack of funding the school (particularity it's student groups) has to cope with.

So you'll see why comments by Lorna Marsden like "[h]ighly talented faculty have fled to other jurisdictions, to better research facilities, smaller class sizes and greater public interest in their work" really piss me off. It's called GLENDON, Lorna. That's where the profs want to be. Stop complaining about being broke. I have an idea: instead of leaning on recent graduates who are broke as a freakin' joke, why not ask the Argo's to spare some change?

Issue: York University and Seneca College Demand More
Funding


Lorna Marsden, president of York University, said, "In Ontario, we have
been letting our students down badly. Highly talented faculty have fled to other
jurisdictions, to better research facilities, smaller class sizes and greater
public interest in their work."

Marsden also called on the government to begin implementing the recommendations made by former Premier Bob Rae in his report on post-secondary education.

Rick Miner, president of Seneca College, said that many Ontario colleges are having to cancel programs and live with vacancies in vital positions because of financial reasons.

In a related issue, the Council of Ontario Universities is claiming that if universities were allowed to set their own tuition prices, they would rise in step with cost-of-living increases, rather than jump sharply to unmanageable levels.