In response to the Quebec Minister of Education Michelle Courchesne’s recent hint that tuition may increase in Quebec, a small group of McGill students gathered in protest at the Roddick Gates on February 18. Some carried signs reading, “Courchesne I can’t afford your lies” while others passed out flyers explaining that since the 2007 deregulation of tuition fees for Quebec and out-of-province students, tuition has increased by approximately $100 per year. Courchesne’s recent statements seemed to confirm these students’ fears that even larger tuition hikes are imminent in the near future.

In a February 11 La Presse article, Courchesne wrote, “I think that there is a consensus that is being established in Quebec. When I speak of consensus, I exclude students. But one sees that, more and more, the importance of increasing tuition fees is apparent.”

Courchesne, however, did not definitively announce that there would be tuition increases, only that “one will see what [Quebec Minister of Finance Raymond] Bachand will announce in his budget,” which will be made public in March.

According to Myriam Zaidi, Arts representative to the Students’ Society, “There was good momentum [behind the protest] because of the General Assembly that happened the week before where students voted against the self-funded tuition model and the increase of ancillary fees.”

“Does a consensus without the students’ advice really mean anything, in terms of consensus?” Arts and Science student John-Eric Hansson stated in response to Courchesne’s statements. “Even if the tuition increases didn’t affect me, I would still be here. I am in solidarity with all other students and that means that I also want to fight their tuition increases.”

McGill was one of many Quebec universities and CEGEPs to participate in the protest on the 18th against the potential tuition increases. SSMU Vice-President External Sebastian Ronderos-Morgan called the event a “symbolic action in solidarity.”

“The event was intended to encourage more awareness amongst the student body as to this announcement, primarily because there was very little coverage in the English papers,” he said.

Talks of tuition increases and a lack of student input has been a growing trend in Quebec. In particular, Ronderos-Morgan pointed to a “pre-advisory budget” Quebec economic forum last January.

“The business community and various other important people were invited by the government to discuss the budget, but nobody from the union sector or the student sector was invited. In fact, they were not even allowed inside,” he said. Because of these events, Ronderos-Morgan labeled Courchesne “out of touch with students.”

Regardless of tuition increases in the short-term, the protest helped to shed light on the broader issue of financing education in Quebec. Many students fear that the recent self-funded tuition model of McGill’s Master of Business Administration program sets a negative precedent for other Quebec universities. Referencing the higher tuition fees in both public and private American universities, JoÃl Pedneault, Arts representative to SSMU, explained, “People do not want to see American inequalities in Quebec.”

“A study commissioned by SSMU in 2007 proved that as tuition fees increase, the level of government contribution to university decreases, which is to say that [tuition increases] don’t necessarily, in the long run, improve the funding of the university,” added Ronderos-Morgan.

Approximately 52 per cent of McGill’s budget is subsidized by the government whereas less than 20 per cent comes from student tuition fees.

“At what point would it actually become more profitable for universities to have tuition hikes at the point where they would be earning more from tuition than from government subsidies, which would essentially be a private model?” asked Ronderos-Morgan.

“At any rate, I hope that we can strike a balance in Quebec between accessible education and not having an elite system,” Pedneault said. “Education should be a leveling factor in society, one that does not entrench inequalities and create a hyper-educated elite. I would hope that universities, like CEGEPs are supposed to create a cohesion within society,”

Ronderos-Morgan added that there will be “more plans of attack” over the course of March with regards to the allegations of tuition increases.

The First Nations University of Canada, North America’s only fully accredited Aboriginal university, has had a rough year.

The school’s future is up in the air after losing over $12 million dollars in provincial and federal funding cuts in late January and early February. The cuts were in response to a long, complicated series of administrative problems.

The university – which was founded in 1976 as the Saskatchewan Federated Indian College and has three campuses, all in Saskatchewan – has been in full crisis mode since Saskatchewan Advanced Education Minister Rob Norris’s February 3 announcement that the province would stop funding the school in September. Students have held multiple rallies to try and save the institution, and faculty members have started a “Fund First Nations University Now!” blog.

Norris’s announcement stated that the province had “lost confidence in the governance and management of the school.” Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), which withdrew its $7.3 million annual support a few days later, cited similar reasons.

“For some time now, [we have] worked with the First Nations University of Canada to address long-standing and systemic government and management issues,” said Margot Geduld, an INAC spokesperson.

In the short term, the two cuts were direct responses to allegations of corruption by former chief financial officer Murray Westerlund. In a lawsuit filed on December 17, Westerlund claimed that he was fired in early December because he had submitted documents to an auditor that revealed questionable spending by the university’s administration. The documents allegedly revealed that top administrators had been taking big payouts for vacation leave and had filed extravagant expenses for business trips.

But these allegations are only the latest episode in the school’s troubled history. The biggest issue has involved what many claim to be an overtly political Board of Governors that has repeatedly prioritized its own political interests over the university’s academic well-being. The Board has several members appointed by the tribal leaders of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN), the governing body of all First Nations in the province.

Aboriginal education expert and 32-year FNUC faculty member Blair Stonechild criticized the way that chiefs have stubbornly held the Board seats.

“There was a governance model here that was based on this concept of ‘Indian control of Indian education,'” he said, “but [their] interpretation of that was that it meant that chiefs were entitled to sit on the board, and they basically didn’t want to have it any other way, and they couldn’t understand any rationale for not having it that way.”

The school’s problems began in February 2005 with controversial actions by then-FSIN Vice-Chief and FNUC Board Chairman Morley Watson. Watson suspended and replaced senior university managers and ordered an audit of the school’s finances without the approval of the Board. After an FSIN Task Force’s recommended remedies were ignored, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) conducted its own investigation. Concluding that the Board was violating the university’s independence, the AUCC put FNUC on probation in April 2007. Although AUCC released the school from probation the following year, Stonechild filed an academic freedom suit that led the Canadian Association of University Teachers to censure it in 2008.

“The faculty believed that there had been political interference, that there had been unwarranted intrusion into the affairs of the institution,” said Stonechild, who filed the suit.

The school appeared as though it might fold after the funding cuts, and it is far from safe. However, Arizona lawyer Manley Begay released an important report last week on the school’s government, and his recommendations for a depoliticized Board will be debated at the FSIN legislative assembly from March 8 to 9. And according to a February 17 report in the Regina Leader-Post, a working group will build a proposal in the upcoming weeks that would tie FNUC closer to the University of Regina.

Geduld said that the federal government will remain in “listening mode” to negotiations between the province and the schools, but that, for now, INAC remains committed to its withdrawal. Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl echoed these sentiments in a Leader-Post editorial last Tuesday.

“While I continue to remain an active participant in these discussions, I want to be clear that the Canadian government will no longer directly fund First Nations University of Canada,” Strahl wrote.

Both the province and the government have repeatedly voiced their concern for FNUC students.

“Our priority at this moment is the students of the First Nations University of Canada,” Geldud said, “We’re working with our partners to provide students with the support needed to successfully complete their academic year.”

FNUC’s Students’ Association has organized a rally and spoken before the FSIN Assembly, but declined to comment in any detail on the crisis.

“We’re going to let the politics work themselves out,” said Vice President Cadmus Delorme.

Jennifer Plotnick, a recent graduate from the McGill Faculty of Dentistry, has found herself with an unenviable commute due to Quebec’s language requirements. After failing to meet the French language requirements for out-of-province professionals, Plotnick now drives nearly two hours every morning to practice dentistry in Plattsburgh, New York.

As an out-of-province student who studied at an English-language university, Plotnick was required to pass an exam administered by the Quebec Board of the French Language to prove her proficiency in French. This test prevents new professionals who lack French proficiency from obtaining permits to work in the province.

Dr. Paul Allison, dean of the Faculty of Dentistry, said that students are encouraged to study for this test during their university years.

“We make it very clear to all of our students,” Allison said. “If they want to practice in this province and they’re from out of the province, then they have to learn French and they have to [pass] the exams to be able to practice in the province.”

Plotnick, an American citizen, transferred to McGill with two years left in her degree and found it somewhat difficult to learn French on the McGill campus, where English is primarily spoken. She maintained, however, that she felt confident in her ability to speak French and deal with French-speaking patients.

“I actually learned a bunch of French,” Plotnick said. “I can actually speak French quite well, but not enough to pass an exam, which I think is really arbitrary.

“It’s known to be an exam that people don’t feel displays the kind of French that you know – it doesn’t show what you can do, in terms of speaking, in terms of writing.”

Because she was unable to pass the test while still in school and again after the required three-month waiting period, Plotnick is now in an uncomfortable situation trying to pay down her dental school debt.

“I just couldn’t take [any more time] off to learn French,” she said. “Because unfortunately when you go into dental school, you accrue a lot of debt, and with debt come monthly interest payments.”

Plotnick said she is frustrated, but recognizes the need for the requirement.

“I see what their point is,” she said. “They basically don’t want a bunch of English professionals to come here and just not work in French at all and not be able to speak French.”

The law is part of The Charter of French Language, or Bill 101, which holds that people who work in any of the 45 regulated professions in the province must speak French.

Martin Bergeron, a spokesperson for the Quebec Board of the French Language, explained that this is the law and that it is the duty of his office to uphold it.

“The law states that you need to learn French to work in a professional corporation in Quebec,” Bergeron said.

Though the law may be clear, there are numerous gaps that make it easier for some people to obtain the required permit to work in Quebec. Quebeckers from English high schools and CEGEPs are presumed be proficient in French and are not required to pass the exam. Foreign-trained professionals coming to Quebec are eligible for up to three temporary permits over four years, allowing them to learn French while working in the province.

Anglophone students who graduate from an English-language university in Quebec are required to take this exam immediately after graduation. However, there is no possibility of securing the temporary work permits enjoyed by foreign-trained professionals.

Plotnick has tried to use this experience to inform other Anglophone students studying in Quebec by starting a Facebook group titled, “English speaking McGill grads for an equal chance to work in Montreal.”

“It would be a great warning to anyone at McGill to understand that if things aren’t changed and they ever plan on staying in Montreal, take French courses now,” she said.

McGill is hoping that a new agreement with TERI University in India will put the university at the forefront of climate research. The research memorandum focusses on three different aspects of environmental research: urban transportation, biofuels, and renewable energy.

Principal Heather Munroe-Blum and Denis Thérien, McGill’s vice-principal (research and international relations), secured a memorandum of agreement with New Delhi-based TERI University, as well as similar agreements with three other Indian universities, while accompanying Quebec Premier Jean Charest on a trade mission to the country.

The agreement was also signed in order to increase the ease of communication between universities. TERI University is already renowned for its climate research, and this agreement will help to enable better student and faculty exchanges.

“One of the goals we have been constructing is to improve student mobility, and not only students, but faculty as well, and both ways,” said Thérien. “We would like Indian students to come to McGill, and we want McGill students to go to TERI … It’s a two- way relationship.”

Dr. P.P. Bhojvaid, vice-chancellor of TERI University, who co-ordinated the agreement from TERI’s side, has lived in Montreal and knows the McGill community well. The universities had been in academic contact prior to the agreement and the research memorandum is intended to serve as a formal recognition of this partnership.

“There are already relationships between colleagues at McGill and colleagues from TERI University. You have to be aware there are two things, the institute and the academy, and we are already working with both on all three legs. The agreement that we signed was to formalize something already in place,” said Thérien.

The prospect of going to study in India is certainly exciting for some students.

“I would love the experience of studying in India because it would bring a different perspective,” said Max Luke, U1 biodiversity and conservation. “As an environment student, too, it would be great to go there because I think McGill has made a really good choice with this school and this research collaboration.”

Professor Donald Smith of the department of plant science is one of the researchers involved with the biofuel portion of the project. He explained the growing importance of this type of research given current global economic conditions.

“Global energy demand is rising steeply in both developed and developing nations and, at the same time, we are about at the point of maximum rate of extraction of crude oil, thus demand is beginning to outstrip supply,” he said.

One of the keys to Smith’s work is to lower the input and maximize output of the energy involving biofuels – achieving this is critical to future success.

“Brazil currently produces 50 per cent of its fluid fuels on only one per cent of its agricultural land,” Smith said. “Through developing the resource, [Brazil] has positioned itself extremely well for a world where fossil fuels are relied on less and less.”

Right now, both schools are looking on their respective sides for funding to help the program. In terms of the research, Thérien said, “the first concrete next step is the workshop on the theme of biofuels between colleagues of McGill and colleagues of TERI which should take place in the next few weeks.”

The two schools are also quickly working to benefit the students and exchange professors.

“We are looking at how possible it is in a short time frame to exchange courses and programs; to have some professors go there and teach our models,” Thérien said. “For example, something we discussed last week was sending our professors over there to teach a very intensive three week course.”