The introduction of a new, mandatory $50 student health fee goes against the idea of a tuition freeze, says Students’ Union president Ella Henry.
“The government committed to a freeze, students expect that means there will be a freeze,” she said. “A freeze that applies selectively to some universities and not others is simply not a freeze.”
The fee, labelled a student health plan fee on the STU website, will be charged to all STU students starting this school year, regardless of whether they have opted in to the university’s student health plan. The fee was introduced to UNB students last fall.
According to UNB’s 2009/2010 budget, the fee “is intended to provide funding to assist in offsetting costs associated with student health clinics on both campuses.”
In a previous interview, STU spokesman Jeffrey Carleton said the implementation of the $50 fee means that STU has to have “stronger administrative ties to the operation of the student health centre.” The university has taken the first step toward doing this by creating a President’s Advisory Committee on the issue of student health.
However, in the last budget, the provincial government pledged to freeze tuition fees at the province’s public universities for a third year.
Henry said the introduction of a mandatory student health fee goes against the idea of a tuition freeze.
Henry Donald Arsenault, Minister of Post Secondary Education,Training and Labour, told the Students’ Union via email that the fee is not considered part of this tuition freeze.
Henry is now calling on STU to implement a more transparent process when introducing tuition and fee hikes. She says a process with no public consultation is “unacceptable.”
“A new fee at STU this year wasn’t something students were watching for,” Henry said in an email. “[The Students’ Union is] working to get better, more transparent procedures in place within the university.”
The union has also written to the five political parties running in the provincial elections this month.
“The government has broken its promise to New Brunswick students. A freeze with exceptions is not a freeze,” Henry said.
The letter asks political parties to extend the freeze on tuition and student fees for four years.
The student health centre, located on the third floor of Jones House on the UNB campus, is no stranger to controversy.
The health centre was the talk of both campuses near the end of the last school after frustrated students took to Facebook to demand changes to the way it is operated.
As of May 3, the UNB Student Health Centre has begun implementation of an electronic registration system.
