Students' Union, UCalgary

The UCalgary Students’ Union looks forward to working closely with the newly elected and sworn-in Calgary City Council. The SU offers its congratulations to Mayor Gondek as she begins in her historic position as the first woman Mayor of Calgary.

The SU also congratulates new Ward 7 Councillor Terry Wong. The SU had a close relationship with the previous Ward 7 Councillor and we look forward to continuing this important relationship.

The SU plans to bring forward important student issues to Mayor Gondek and Councillor Wong, as well as other members of Council. Students are concerned about transit accessibility, plans for the Green Line, the hollowing out of downtown, and how our new elected officials will engage and better involve young people in political processes.

The SU is sending a letter outlining these concerns as well as a request to meet with most City Councillors and the Mayor.

Gender-based and sexual violence is a problem on all post-secondary campuses. UCalgary is no exception. Students and young people look up to our elected officials and expect them to be held to a high standard. The recent revelations regarding Councillor Chu are disturbing.

The SU believes victims and survivors.

Working with Councillor Chu would erase much of the work our organization has done in the area of campus sexual violence. Students deserve an organization who will speak up for them and that is exactly what we are doing.

Our organization is committed to representing all students, including students who have been victims of or affected by sexual violence. Therefore, our organization cannot, in good conscience, engage with Councillor Chu going forward. Many UCalgary students live in ward 4 and deserve effective representation from their Councillor. The SU cannot see how this can be achieved given the current situation.

If you need immediate help and support on this issue or others, please reach out to the Distress Centre by calling them at 403-266-4357. They are available to help 24 hours a day.

Media inquiries may be directed to:

Mike Brown

External Communications Specialist

University of Calgary Students’ Union

403-560-0577

Michael.brown1@ucalgary.ca

The SU is disappointed, but not surprised, that the University Board of Governors passed two undergraduate Exceptional Tuition Increases. The increases will affect students starting their studies in fall 2022 in Engineering and the Medical Doctor program. Tuition will increase by more than 30% and 15%, respectively. These increases will now go to the Minister of Advanced Education for final approval.

The SU has opposed these undergraduate increases for the following reasons:

– The SU has not received a full itemized list of program improvements funded by these increases.

– The SU has asked about how the university will measure program improvement over the next five years and how it will determine that the programs have actually improved.

– It is unclear how students feedback this fall has changed the increase proposals, or if it has at all. The SU believes this should be reflected in the proposal submitted to the Minister.

– Recent tuition increases should be considered as a package. An engineering student starting in 2022 will pay at least 50% more than a student who started in 2019.

– Students are having a hard time finding work. To increase tuition by this magnitude during a pandemic and economic downturn is poor timing and ignores the circumstances of students.

The SU was successful in advocating for a delay to approval when these proposals were initially brought forward in May. The SU cautioned the Board of Governors in May and June, that consultation with students was not adequate. The faculties conducted surveys in March and April but failed to tell students what the survey was about or link them in any way to massive tuition increases. It wasn’t until after students had left campus for the summer that the full details of tuition increases were revealed.

The Board of Governors declined to delay the process despite inadequate consultation. Thanks to SU advocacy, the Minister of Advanced Education rejected the proposals and sent them back to the university to conduct proper consultation. The university was forced to consult again throughout the first month of the fall semester and that consultation was more robust.
It remains unclear just how student feedback gained this fall by the university has changed the ETI proposals. The SU strongly believes that if no changes were made as a result of the redone student consultation, the university should note that in its final submission to the Minister.

To prevent such a situation from happening again, the SU is preparing a document that sets out what meaningful consultation looks like and what the roles and responsibilities are for both the SU and the university when it comes to consultation processes. Through this we will make sure that when the university consults with students, students are given the full details of what is occurring and ensure that consultation occurs while students are enrolled in classes.

The SU is anticipating further tuition increases this year, meaning costs for these programs and others will increase further and students will be asked to shoulder that burden going forward.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2021 SU By-Election results
October 15, 2021

Students went to the polls for the SU By-Election in what has become a busy election season. The SU is asking students to vote in several Faculty Representative races, a Senate race, and a series of plebiscite questions with regards to the SU Health & Dental Plan. For the first time, there were no immediate acclamations announced after Nomination Days, instead students were asked to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for uncontested races.

The results are in.

The Faculty of Social Work has chosen Nik Jarvis with 55% of the vote.

Haskayne School of Business students chose Jaime Pablo with 61% of the vote. He will join Adrian Alcantara as the Haskayne Faculty Representative.

For the Cumming School of Medicine, Emily Macphail will join Rafael Sanguinetti as Faculty Representative after winning 97% of the ‘yes’ vote.

For University of Calgary Senate, Armaan Sidhu was elected with 86% of ‘yes’ votes.

Several questions were also posed to students around the SU’s Health & Dental plan. The questions are non-binding and seek to better understand student perspectives on how they use the plan and its future.

Students were asked for their priorities when it came to the dental portion of the plan and the medical portion of the plan. Of students who indicated a preference on the dental plan, the largest plurality of students (21%) are willing to pay up to $15 more per year for improved coverage. Of students who indicated a preference on the health plan, the largest plurality (33%) are willing to pay up to $25 more annually to improve coverage.

On the third question, 50% students who voted support a potential constitutional amendment to allow for price increases to the plan tied to inflation up to a maximum of 4% annually.

The officials elected will serve until the end of April. The SU will be running its General Election next March to form the 80th SLC.

Media inquiries may be directed to:
Mike Brown
External Communications Specialist
University of Calgary Students’ Union
Cell: 403-560-0577
Email: Michael.brown1@ucalgary.ca

October was a busy month on the advocacy front. The SU was ramping up its efforts ahead of the municipal election. The SU advocacy radio show had been hosting guests each week, including candidates from several wards and the leading mayoral candidates.

The SU was thrilled to see so many students choose to vote on campus while municipal polling stations were open at UCalgary. Our student Get Out the Vote campaign has concluded and we’d like to thank all students who signed up to receive text updates from us about when and where to vote. We’ve drawn the bookstore and Den prizes. Congratulations to all of the winners.

On the ongoing advocacy side of things, the SU is still pushing the university to accept responsibility and adequately compensate students who had most or all classes moved online at the last minute. The bursary the university offered was completely inadequate and failed to fully compensate students and failed to make all affected students eligible as well. Our stance is simple: The university should own the consequences of its actions. To date, it has not.

The SU is continuing to advocate for a campus wide Credit Granted (CG) option. Over the summer, the SU was assured that undergrads in all faculties would have some type of access to CG. It now appears that students in the faculty of Engineering, and others, will not have any access to a CG option. CG allows a student to credit a course and have it not impact their GPA as long as they receive at least a C- in the class.

We are continuing to advocate on this issue and are questioning the university as to why they are not following through with the commitment they made to students in the summer. While we don’t expect all courses to be included in a CG program, we do not believe there is a valid reason for any faculty to completely restrict the option.

Finally, we have two tuition updates to share:

The UCalgary Board of Governors passed the exceptional tuition increase proposals for a second time. These were passed in the early summer but were rejected by the province due to a lack of proper student consultation as a result of SU advocacy efforts. The increases affect the faculties of engineering and medicine. The university consulted with students again throughout the month of September and the consultation was better. What remains unclear is what changed in the tuition proposal content from the summer until now. The SU representative on the Board voted against but the vote still passed 11-5. The SU is looking to meet with the Minister to discuss these proposals further.

The second tuition update is the ‘regular’ tuition increases. This is third and final year that the university will be able to increase tuition by more than inflation. Under regulations right now the university can increase tuition by an average of 7% across programs with no program increased by more than 10%. These increases are largely due to provincial budget cuts. Students are paying the price as a result.

The university is also increasing a number of fees including the Student Services Fee and the Athletics fee. So, if you’re (still) reading this we’d like to hear from you as to whether you think you get value from the Student Services fee you pay or the Athletics fee you pay to subsidize the Dinos. Reach out to us on any of our socials or to feedback@su.ucalgary.ca.