A collection of articles related to the government’s cuts to higher education and the attack on democratic student organizations.
This week, Franco-Ontarian students rallied at Queen's Park to demand government action on creating a Franco-Ontarian University. On the same day, roughly 100 km away, students at the Barrie campus of Laurentian University started an occupation of their administration's offices, demanding the right to complete their program after learning that their campus was closing its doors.
Turning public services into things that can be bought and sold has been one of the most defining and also destructive processes of neoliberalism.
In Canada, universities are widely considered to be public institutions. They should be public, but for years Canadian provincial and federal governments and university administrations have acted to undermine the public aspects of higher education and the academy more generally.
The role of a university is unique among public institutions. Instead of providing a single service to public users, they exist to establish a space, culture, and work that supports processes of discovery, advancement and challenging existing knowledge for the betterment of society.
Student activists almost come to expect September's flow of sexist and misogynist episodes, which is why student union campaigns are extremely important. However, back to school this year gave activists a painful reminder that violent hate for women and feminists still exist.
The school year has begun for most of those going (back) to post-secondary programs and with it comes the barrage of 'news' reports on the cost of school supplies. What is really frustrating about these stories is the analysis seems to be that the cost of school supplies and living expenses is too high, but the same journalists writing these stories do not touch on the costs for education as a public service.
The expression of protest is to remind the administration that students run their campuses. Sometimes this mass political expression comes across as a bit contradictory, but that's the nature of liberal arts academies. Neil Macdonald of CBC disagrees however and he is outraged at the very notion that students should have a say about who speaks to them at graduation ceremonies.
The Conservative government continues its long-term project of replacing government services with those provided by the private sector. Even financial support and oversight of social services such as literacy and essential skills development for those most in need are being privatized.
The neo-liberal promise of a future with high demand for knowledge economy workers (that never came) moved many away from skilled-trades and toward university degrees. For the Tories to now blame students for getting BAs instead of going to trades college and becoming a welder shows both a cynical disregard of history and this government's own incompetence when it comes to economic planning. Workers and students must show that the alternative to the Tory economic program is the only way forward that will work for Canada.
