The FEUQ is spending $66,000 of student money to run a television ad campaign slamming the Charest government for its decision to convert $103 million of bursaries into loans:
The FEUQ is demanding that the Charest government rescind its decision to transform $103 million worth of student bursaries into loans.
Federation spokespeople maintain that this move is not an effort to rebuild an image some might say was tarnished by the violent incidents that occured at their Monticello demonstration last week, but rather to make the public aware of the issues at stake.
Just to clarify: they’re mad because students will actually have to repay the money they get from the government. Cause that would mean students would actually have to get jobs when they graduate… you know, the kind that pay money.
It’s so much better to live off of handouts that nobody expects you to ever repay, isn’t it? Then you can stay in school forever, taking one class at a time that you never attend, and spend your time organizing protests and drinking fair-trade coffee.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the student protests and strikes are jokes. Quebec students pay a pittance in tuition compared to anywhere else in North America. But the way the student unions work, the people elected to leadership are the ones who promise more strikes, more fights, more protests.
The tuition freeze in Quebec is sort of like ethanol subsidies in Iowa. Everyone knows that they’re damaging, but it is suicidal for any government to even suggest revoking them. And so we have a university system that is cash-strapped and an endless cycle of students coming to believe that it’s more honourable to live off of handouts than to actually work for anything.
*Sigh*.
I seem to recall that I paid part of your handout for you to attend Concordia. Not very honourable of you.
The reality is that the merit of public university education is an ongoing debate. The government is constantly looking for ways to reduce their spending as shown by the decreasing budgets of universities in quebec. Increasing loans is a prelude to justify increasing university tution.
You claim protests are a joke but your logic is circular. Quebec has the lowest tuiton rates in Canada because it has had the most student organization.
To attack the student unions themselves only shows your ignorance of the issue and your inability to make an educated comment on what is going on.
I agree with Segacs. We should immediately disaffiliate from the FEUQ and vote out the Evolution CSU executive that worked to affiliate with FEUQ and even paid an additional $8,000 of student money toward this ridiculous television ad.
In the meantime, we all expect Segacs to inform the revcenue department that she would like to pay back the money she was given as boursaries by the taxpayers of Quebec.
I didn’t get bursaries, Bill. I did, however, benefit from the high level of subsidy that the government funds all universities with. However, clearly unlike you, I recognize the absurdity of the situation and I would have been willing to pay a bit more for my education if it was being funded properly.