SOMA DALAI

About 100 students and faculty rallied around the Peter MacKinnon Building in the Bowl on March 24 to protest rising tuition and fees and what they view as the corporatization of education.

The rally was organized as  part of the Pan-Canadian Day of Action, which saw student protests held at the University of Ottawa, the University of Toronto and the Université de Montréal. The Revolutionary Student Movement, based in Ottawa, helped to organize the protest at the University of Saskatchewan along with the local Socialist Students Association.

One of the rally organizers, Hannah Cooley, a fourth-year history student from the U of S, read out the rally’s five key demands.

“The elimination of student fees and the forgiveness of debt, the removal of all barriers to education, increased funding for indigenous students and the decolonization of education, post-secondary institutions for the people and not for profits and the democratic control of the university by students, faculty and staff.”

Each demand was met with loud cheers from the assembled protesters.

Amanda Bestvater, a fourth-year political studies student, and Mari Anderson, a third-year English major, are two more of the rally organizers. Bestvater and Anderson are part of the USASK Mobilization Committee, one of many such groups that have sprung up around Canada to plan the Pan-Canadian Day of Action. While both are hopeful that the rally will inspire dialogue, neither expect immediate change to come from one protest.

“Today is just the starting point for all of this,” said Anderson. “We really want this to be the beginning of a conversation that we’re having and the beginning of a lot of minds being changed towards tuition and what open access means for students.”

When asked what “open access” would entail, Anderson had a ready response.

“Open access would mean that anyone who wants to learn is able to learn. Right now there are a lot of barriers in terms of tuition fees, in terms of student loans. So even if you can get student loans to pay tuition, student loans are really inhibiting to everything after your graduation.”

Disability barriers, systemic racism and the impacts of colonialism are also things Bestvater and Anderson want the university to address. Bestvater said she believes the university’s search for corporate investments is incompatible with these goals.

The main concern with corporate investment, according to Bestvater, is that it comes with conditions and disproportionately funds certain departments within the university.

“The problem with [corporate donations] is that it almost always comes with strings attached,” said Bestvater. “Strings like expecting certain quotas in faculty research to be directed at helping out the corporations with land investigations… nuclear research that have faculty [researching] the benefits of nuclear [energy] implementation in Canada, looking at how to get corporate investors for our growing resource economy.”

Bestvater was one of six people to give a speech in front of the assembled crowd, where she made the case for education being more than an investment in the job market.

While the speakers represented a wide range of viewpoints, their speeches had common themes: recognition of Canada’s colonial history and indigenous rights, the need for accessible education and the overall importance of education. All themes resonated strongly with protesters but when asked, many students listed tuition increases as their primary concern.

Also at the rally, students were circulating a petition to lower tuition.

Kehan Fu, incoming U of S Students’ Union vice-president student affairs, also voiced his related concerns.

“People who are in Grade 10 and Grade 11, people who are just coming into the country, they’re the ones who face the brunt of these changes,” said Fu.

Jack Saddleback, incoming USSU president, was also present among the demonstrators. When asked about his thoughts on tuition, Saddleback stressed the importance of involving students in the decision-making process.

“Tuition is too damn high, there should be more consultation going on with students,” said Saddleback. “Student consultations about tuition have been getting better, but they always need to be getting better.”

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Photos: Katherine Fedoroff/Photo Editor