By: Dylan DesRoche
Photo by Jeff Harper/Metro News
for Metro Published on Thu Mar 03 2016
Students from across Nova Scotia are not happy, and on Thursday they decided to let Kelly Regan, Minister of Labour and Advanced Education, know just that.
A small crowd of university and college students from across the province braved chilly temperatures to protest outside Regan’s constituency office in Bedford early Thursday.
“We have two demands,” Hannah Kaya, who serves as the outgoing external vice-president of the University of King’s College student union, said during the protest.
“We’re asking that Minister Kelly Regan commit to passing legislation that would mandate sexual assault policy on our campuses, and we’re asking she commit to objecting the reset.”
The students are upset with universities and colleges across the province who are planning to raise tuition following the one-year removal of the province’s cap on fees.
Removing the cap allows universities to adjust their tuitions this year and they will be locked in next year, meaning the increases are here to stay.
“It’s essentially been a tuition free-for all; we’re seeing tuition go up by as much as 37 per cent,” said Haya.
“The government’s making education impossible for students to afford.”
At Dalhousie University, one of the school’s planning on raising tuition, students have already been feeling some financial pressure.
Dalhousie Student Union representatives told Metro on Wednesday that they have had a surge of students using their food bank, with nearly 200 students relying on it to eat.
Brian Leadbetter, director of communications and public relations with Dalhousie University, said he was not aware of the specifics about the number of students using the food bank.
“We certainly do appreciate the concerns and challenges that our students do face; we will attempt to increase and improve students supports as best we can,” Leadbetter told Metro on Thursday.
The students are also frustrated with the Liberal Government’s blocking of Bill 114, the Safer Universities and Colleges Act. The act requires all post-secondary schools to have sexual assault policies, and to make the public aware of all sexual assaults that occur on campus.
“This is a bill students have been rallying support for; we’ve dropped off thousands of postcards and minister refuses to pass it,” said Haya.
Students are worried that the universities are not backing the bill because announcing the assaults make their schools look bad.
“We’re seeing students whose campuses are being made unsafe for the public image of our universities,” she said.
Nova Scotia Education Minister says new agreement addresses student concerns
The province’s Labour and Advanced Education Minister acknowledged Thursday her party didn’t support the Bill 114, but she said it’s a matter of privacy not of principal.
“Nova Scotia has a number of small universities, and stakeholders have told us that tracking and publicly reporting sexual assaults in smaller jurisdictions could identify the victims,” Kelly Regan said in an email statement to Metro.
Despite the Liberal Government’s blocking of the Safer Universities and Colleges Act, Regan said a new memorandum of understanding is in the works to address students’ concerns.
“We are finalizing a new MOU with our ten universities, which will require institutions to have stand-alone sexual assault and sexual violence policies, which must be renewed every three years through an inclusive process.”
Regan is also confident students will still be able to afford post-secondary education, despite tuition increases, with the help of the province.
“Our province has one of the best student assistance programs in the country. Provincial loans are interest-free; there are up-front bursaries and grants students don’t have to repay,” Regan said.
Even with money coming from the province, students, as they demonstrated Thursday, indicated they want more to be done, as they chanted, “students united, we’ll never be defeated.”
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