U of M tuition to increase for 2023-24 academic year Sarah Cohen, staff
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leur Almeida came to Canada for her post-secondary education in order to have more opportunities career-wise and a better quality of life. Now, Almeida is having to worry about the potential weight of student loans to compensate for the increasing international fees she and her family are facing. This upcoming year, the U of M will see an increase in tuition by 2.75 per cent for undergraduate and graduate programs, for both domestic students and international students like Almeida, now in her second year of a bachelor of science. “I just hope that [increasing tuition] doesn’t continue,” she said. “There are a lot of international students who come here, and everybody comes from different financial backgrounds, and we’re already paying so much more […] if this goes on, it’s going to be really difficult to afford education.” “Everybody deserves a chance. Everybody needs to be able to have access to education.” The 2.75 per cent increase in tuition fees this fall is creating concern for undergraduate and graduate students alike. The increase was approved at the March 28 board of governor’s meeting, where U of M president Michael Benarroch outlined the proposed 2023-24 budget for the university. All domestic and international
undergraduate and graduate programs will undergo an increase in tuition, except for the undergraduate doctor of pharmacy program. The increase will also extend to all university fees. Vice-provost (academic planning and programs) Greg Smith noted that “recent inflationary pressures [have] meant that some costs have shot up very quickly.” According to Smith, that means that as the costs of running a university go up, such as faculty salaries, maintenance and equipment, so does tuition. The percentage increase is mandated by the provincial government, Smith explained. Minister of Advanced Education and Training in the Manitoba legislature Sarah Guillemard was not available for an interview. Jon Lovlin, spokesperson for the minister, said in a statement to the Manitoban that while the province sets the maximum, each college and university is allowed to adjust their tuition how they see fit as long as they do not exceed that maximum. The maximum for the 2023-24 academic year is 2.75 per cent for universities and $133 per program for colleges. At the University of Manitoba, the increase will result in a cost of $444.75 for the average three credit-hour course in the faculty of arts. During the 2022-23 academic year,
photo / Ebunoluwa Akinbo / staff
the domestic tuition for that course was $432.84. An international student in the same course will be paying approximately $1,700, where they would have been paying $1,654.44 in the academic year prior. Smith said the 2.75 per cent increase is below the inflation rate, and that the need to reach that maximum increase for additional revenue was clear. University of Manitoba Graduate Students’ Association president Christopher Yendt and UMSU president Tracy Karuhogo both brought up concerns for students amidst the rising cost of living.
“While the university exists in its own little context sometimes, we can’t forget the fact that cost of food has gone up, cost of rent and living as gone up […] and yet we still struggle within the campus environment to meet those needs and those challenges for grad students,” said Yendt. Yendt also emphasized that graduate students are both employees and students, putting them in a situation where the university is asking for more from students when really the students “need more from the university.” Cont’d p. 4 / Undergraduate
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Inside the U of M’s Village Lab Elah Ajene, staff
News
photo / provided
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igii-bapiimin is an Ojibwe language term meaning, “we survived.” It is an expression that reflects the resilience and strength of Indigenous people. The Gigii-Bapiimin study, launched by the Village Lab — U of M’s faculty of social work community-based interdisciplinary health research lab — applies this concept to the continued survival of Indigenous people through past and present pandemics. In this study, the research lab explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the well-being of Indigenous
people living with HIV-AIDS in Manitoba and Saskatchewan communities, as well as the resilience of those living in said communities.
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Community is at the centre of the Village Lab. For its director, Rusty Souleymanov, this entails collaborating with community members
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and using community-based research practices while operating at an intersection of health and social sciences. “It’s all about peers, it’s all about community, and that’s where the power lies with our lab,” he said. Souleymanov, who received his PhD at the University of Toronto, is currently an associate professor at the U of M’s faculty of social work and director of the Village Lab, and has been actively engaged as a community-based HIV and harm-reduction researcher in Canada over the past 13 years. Souleymanov seamlessly blends his expertise in social
Arts & 10 Culture
work, public health and psychology in working with socially and economically marginalized communities to address both health and social equity issues. Since its launch in 2021, the Village Lab has focused on three main aspects — creating meaningful research partnerships, producing novel research and building skills and increasing capacity among community partners and peers through training community members and students. Cont’d p. 5 / Group
12 Sports
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Small-scale school
Tit fore tat
Celebrating ignorance
The language of art
Have you herd?
U of M to offer new micro-diplomas
Why golf is bad
Book bans harm kids
Indigenous cultures embraced at WAG-Qaumajuq
Here’s what your Bisons are up to this summer
June 28, 2023
SINCE 1914
VOL. 110, NO. 01