Everyone should care about strike at University of Manitoba
So, why should the general public care about the strikeat the University ofManitobaand students missing a few weeks of class?
This labour action is ultimately a fight against rapidly declining quality of education and services offered at the university stemming from ongoing budget cuts.
Students at the university have been sitting on the floor in crowded classrooms as a result of a whopping $11 million in funding cuts imposed by university administration.
Students are paying other students to move up in waiting lines for limited course offerings in an attempt to graduate on time as the administration continues to cut funding.
On top of this, faculty members have seen their workloads increase by 30 per centin the past year alone.
This clearly diminishes the ability of professors to deliver a quality education to students.
The cuts to this year's budgetrepresent a troubling three-year trend of austerity on campus, in a year where tuition and academic fees both rose 1.2 per centat the rate of inflation and the province increased its operating grant by 2.5 per cent.
According to university budget documents, the cuts were necessary despite the fact the university actually posted a surplus of over $68 million, which they transferred into a reserve fund. For an institution with a total budget of just over $637 million, a $68 million dollar surplus is nothing to sneeze at.
While professors and academic staff may be the ones on the picket line this time around, there are other workers on campus feeling the pinch.
The University of Manitoba has several groups of employees on campus, ranging from professors (UMFA), CUPE 3909 which represents teachings assistants and academic supports, to support staff represented by the Association of Employees Supporting Education Services(AESES) as well as physical plant workers, who are represented by UNIFOR.
These cuts meanstudents won't have the same access to counsellors to alleviate mental health issues or academic advisors to help them figure out the best options for their degrees. These workers are nervously watching how the university handles this labour dispute.
AESES has already lost dozens of members due to cuts, so other campus workers will be watching to see if their jobs are also at risk.
The quality of education in the classroom and the support services that students rely on are being aggressively dismantled by the administration.
While some faculties have seen significant cuts and workload increases, president David Barnard and his vice presidents have seen their salaries increase by an astounding 47 per centover the past five years.
This is public money
As a public institution, the University of Manitoba plays a tremendous role in our province. It attracts students from around the world, trains the next generation and leads our province in innovative research.
Certainly, any investment in post-secondary education and research is always a proactive investment for governments.
So why are we putting this at risk with unnecessary cuts and labour strife?
The province is also playing a very direct role in this. In addition to encouraging the university to push for a settlement that included a wage freeze, the new provincial government has not committed to keeping tuition fees at the rate of inflation.
Their quest to balance the provincial budget could include lowering or freezing operating grants to post-secondary institutions, which may push the financial burden further onto students.
It is plausible that the university is bringing forward these cuts in anticipation of a declining operating grant from the province.
For the 2016/2017 fiscal year, the province provides the university with a total grant of over $362 million dollars.
This figure represents more than half of the university's total budget, contributed entirely by our tax dollars.
For the public, budget cuts means that the value of post-secondary education is lessened and this has implications for all of us.
Manitobans need to take stock of how the university runs its finances and workforce.
The administration is imposing a model on the University of Manitoba that will negatively affect the province.
As a society, do we value a university run like a corporation over the quality of education in the classroom? We should demand more from our universities.
Zach Fleisher is a student at the University of Manitoba, a former chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students-Manitoba and a candidate for the New Democrats in the previous provincial election.
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