NOVEMBER 10 Concordia Against the Tuition Fee Hike!

On November 10, thousands of students from across will be participating in a province wide demonstration against the $1,625 tuition fee hike:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=245047715535115
Join us!
The delegation from Concordia will be holding a rally starting at 10am and shuttling people to the Montreal-wide demonstration from about 12:30 onward.
SCHEDULE: We will be gathering on the Reggie’s terrace (behind the Hall building) starting at 10am, and free food from the People’s Potato will be served throughout the day.
Starting at 12pm free buses will be bringing people from the Hall building to the start of the march at Place Emilie-Gamelin (near Berri-UQAM metro)
Meeting point for Loyola:
We will be gathering near the Shuttle Bus stop near Sherbrooke Street
Starting at 12:30 free buses will be bringing people to the start of the march at Place Emilie-Gamelin (near berri UQAM metro station)
Free food will be served
To find the mob look for the banners!
WANT TO GET INVOLVED? MobSquad meets every Friday, 5pm, Hall building 7th floor lounge! Come join in!
The following text is taken from http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=245047715535115
SOME FACTS:
On March 17, 2011, the Charest government presented a controversial provincial budget containing a massive hike in tuition fees; a total of a $1,625 increase over the next five years in $325 yearly increments. This increase, combined with the previous increase of $500 over the last five years (between 2007 and 2012), constitutes an increase in fees of 127% on your student tuition bill. To be clear, that means tuition fees will have more than doubled by 2017.
We, the students of Quebec, will not accept Charest’s attempt to increase the fees, a proposal which would have grave repercussions on the lives of students and their families. Indeed, in addition to being a major blow to accessible university education, it presents a world in which it is no longer your ability to succeed that makes the difference between admission and refusal to university, but rather the size of your stock portfolio. This tuition fee hike will also have an impact on student debt, already $14,000 on average by the end of a bachelor’s degree. This debt hike is simply irresponsible according to the actual student economic situation.
Financial aid is genuinely incapable of supporting students throughout their studies. Despite the fact that these programs exist to help students overcome poverty, they are ill-equipped in their current state to handle the reality of student debt. Moreover, the current model of student financial aid allocates funds presupposing that students are able to feed themselves on only $7 a day, that internet access is a “luxury,” and that parents are able to contribute to their children’s studies beginning from the moment that both parents have a combined revenue of $30,000, less than the poverty line.. And the modifications announced by the government are nothing more than window dressing: they’re compensation systems paid for by the increase in tuition. Out of the 118 million dollars announced, 116 million comes directly out of the pockets of students. More proof that Jean Charest’s government doesn’t have any interest in accessible university education.
He affirms that he has the quality of universities and their adequate financing at heart, but it’s in the same breath that he tries to justify an unprecedented and unacceptable fee hike. Worse still, the government is completely incapable of specifying what actually needs funding without using flawed comparative studies from the rest of Canada. Beyond that, the clear lack of leadership and never-ending scandals regarding university administration will ultimately cost more to citizens than what Quebec will make up in higher tuition.
Finally, education is the principal tool of social mobility and access to it is a recognized right. Jean Charest only paid $1,468 (indexed to 2017) per year, far less than the increase he proposes to the youth of Quebec, and is still determined to go ahead with this unjustifiable increase. It’s easy to tell others to “do their part” when you’ve never experienced hardship.
Quebec students won’t let him get away with this. Jean Charest will see us in the streets, and we will do whatever it takes to make him revoke his decision to increase fees. That’s why, on November 10th, we need to send a clear message: Quebec students are against this tuition fee hike—and we’re going to win.
This demonstration is endorsed by QPIRG Concordia