Fellow Students,
In response to the article entitled “STU’s tuition settled,” I feel the only reasonable reaction is to ask, how is this issue really resolved?
The article explains that the impact of the hike has been lessened, but to suggest that the whole issue of tuition is “settled” or “resolved” is excessive, considering the fact that the right to education is still being commodified and we continue to accumulate large amounts of debt, a debt that indentures us to the state after we graduate.
Jody Carr’s announcement on Oct.30, “Tuition increases are a reality across the country, but it is important that any necessary increase is stable and predictable,” reveals a lack of vision in the provincial government and a manoeuvre to reduce tuition increases to an insurmountable fact of life. Fully-funded post-secondary education is in fact a possibility that only requires our society to make the right choices as a collective.
I share the author’s enthusiasm for a day in which the tuition issue will be resolved, but if that so-called “resolution” means ever increasing tuition and student debt, it remains an empty solution that solves or settles nothing. Hence, tuition at STU, New Brunswick and beyond will only be resolved once it has been effectively abolished.
Students will no longer accept being pacified by displays of well-meaning paternalism from the administration and the provincial government. The time has come for students to rise up against their oppressors and challenge the order of the day. The Red T Movement—in solidarity with the international student movement—offers a way forwards in this struggle.
¡La Lucha Continua! The struggle continues.
In Solidarity,
Denis Y. Boulet
