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Students dissatisfied with university leadership

Is Dal run too much like a business? Photo by bsabarnowl via flickr

On March 14 Dalhousie University held the first student consultation session on tuition fee increases. The administration says the session is meant to give students a way of communicating their thoughts with the university’s Board of Governors.

The administration will now consult students on their proposals for fee changes prior to recommending those changes to the Board. The new consultation policy was proposed by outgoing DSU President Chris Saulnier. The Board approved it in February.

Dustin Griffin is a third-year law student and one of three student appointees on the Board. He says the Board was enthusiastic, and that the consultation process was a great success for the student members of the Board.

The administration’s recommendation contains a three per cent general tuition fee increase, and up to a 10 per cent increase for students in professional programs.

But Reclaim Education and Democracy (READ) says there are no solid provisions for the feedback given by students in the consultation process. The administration has to use the feedback as they deem appropriate.

“This could mean anything, and really doesn’t mean anything at all,” says Jacqueline Vincent, a fourth-year student at King’s.

“Students don’t really have that much say in the running of the university,” says Vincent. “Students are not seen as an essential part of the puzzle of governance.”

The Board consists of 27 voting and five non-voting members. The majority are appointed or recommended by the Board. Students have three appointments, two of which are elected. The DSU President serves as a member by convention.

Many of the Board’s appointees also serve on the boards of private and public companies, and there are numerous CEOs and CFOs represented.

The composition of the board “illustrates how the university is more of a business model than anything else,” says Anna Bishop, a member of READ.

READ is “against the corporatization of university, six figure managerial positions, inflated fees and tuition, and curriculums that emphasize careers rather than education,” says Ryan Lum, one of the organizers of READ. These are all “symptoms of a structure that does not foster participation by its members.”

Although Board members “give free expert advice, it is expert advice in a very narrow sense,” says Lum. “It would be nice to hear from someone who is not so concerned with financial issues, but concerned with student issues such as health and well-being and student experience.”

Griffin says that composition of the Board is largely due to forces outside the university’s control. “If the government fully funded the university, you’d see a different approach.” He says the university is suffering from limited resources and the Board’s expertise reflects the fact that financial constraints affect policy.

But Griffin says that does not mean the Board thinks of the university as a business.

“Students are why the doors open everyday. They care about how students feel,” he says. The Board members are “going to make sure the university stays healthy for years to come,” says Griffin. “The Board would rather not raise fees.”

But when it comes to the Board’s operation, students are in the dark. The Board hasn’t posted the minutes for their meetings for over a year. Although students can attend Board meetings, Lum says they can’t really do anything.

“Their hands are tied,” he says. “Besides, many decisions are made in camera or at the committee level.”

Griffin says his expectations joining the Board of Governors did not match his experience there. Being a member of the Board is a “unique situation for a student,” he says. As with any other member of the board, student appointees have a fiduciary duty to the university.

Prior to his election last March, Griffin told the Gazette he would give “the Board back to students.

“You can’t be a student representative,” says Griffin. Board members are responsible for the university as a legal entity and Griffin says this does not line up with what people think of the university generally.Lum says READ believes university governance is about more than financial issues, and the Board’s composition should reflect that.

“Money as the issue needs to be thought beyond,” says Lum. “Because if that’s the be-all and end-all of our issues, then yeah, of course different interests will oppose each other. But I hope we can find some sort of commonality, beyond the stuff we use to buy things.”

Calum Agnew
Calum Agnew
Calum was a News Editor of the Gazette for Volume 146 and served as Assistant News Editor for Volume 145.
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