I know it sounds insane, but hear me out on this. Petty as it seems, overdue fine rates at the University of Saskatchewan are astronomical and it’s high time we all realized it.

Students across the planet are known to vehemently protest high student fees and tuition rates, and for good reason. Universities are notorious for gouging vulnerable students and squeezing every last nickel and dime out of them.

However, at the U of S we have a completely different reason to be getting riled up: the unreasonable and exploitive rates of library fines — stay with me.

In an altruistic move, on Nov. 2 the Saskatoon Public Library announced that it would be waiving upwards of $1 million in overdue fines in an attempt to increase patronage. Certainly, the public library has much different motivations and caters to a broader group, but this move still underscores the real problem at hand.

At the Saskatoon Public Library, regular books can be checked out for a guaranteed 21 days with a chance for renewal. Overdue fines are also 30 cents per day.

By contrast, at the U of S library, students are only guaranteed a minimum seven days with books before they can be recalled, and — if they’re returned late — fines are $2 per day. This is, by all standards, bananas.

Traditionally, being a university student involves using a lot of books. If you’re writing a paper, a week with a book is almost undoubtedly going to be insufficient.

Likewise, the Saskatoon Public Library primarily offers reading material for the general public. While there are recreational reads available at the U of S library as well, chances are if you’re checking a book out at school it’s a scholarly source and something you need to read, not just something you felt like picking up for fun.

So, in other words, the U of S is taking advantage of its captive audience by imposing unreasonable and unrealistic time limits and fines on the student body. Are we going to take this?

When students are already one of the most cash-strapped demographics, having to pay fines like this leaves them in a fairly exploited position — and make no mistake — you will be paying them.

If your fines get out of control at the Saskatoon Public Library, you could hypothetically walk away from the table, stop using the library and avoid having to pay them. No matter what Seinfeld might lead you to believe, no book cop is going to hunt you down and make you pay for your crimes and — as we have just seen — the library might even eventually waive them for you.

If you let your fines hit $30 at the U of S library — a simple feat to pull off if you’ve got several books checked out at once — your library privileges will be suspended, effectively rendering you unable to research or write at an academic level.

Furthermore — and perhaps a little more dramatically — you can’t receive grades, sign up for new classes or even graduate with outstanding fines, so if you’re getting fines, you best believe you’ll be paying them off sooner than later.

Admittedly, it would be ridiculous to see students organizing a mass protest or strike over something like library fines, even if they are wholly unreasonable. Luckily, that isn’t the only solution we have at our disposal.

A number of Canadian universities, including Dalhousie University and the University of British Columbia, observe an annual “food for fines” event. For a period every year, students can knock $2 off of their outstanding fines for every food bank donation they bring into the library.

Being that complaining isn’t going to do much to actually help us all out, the U of S should seriously consider adopting this model and giving students a chance to help themselves while helping out others, all while promoting continued use of university amenities.

As easy as it would seem to just return our books on time, shit happens. We don’t always have the luxury of being able to do that, and until we do, it seems that having a way to sidestep these fines is sorely needed.

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Photo: Kyra Mazer