ULTRAVIRES.CA
September 29, 2022
VOL. 24 ISS. 1
Ultra Vires
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO FACULTY OF LAW
Tuition Increase for Out-ofProvince Students? Take Your Money Elsewhere
U of T Law Changes Lecture Recording Policy New policy makes lecture recordings more accessible to students but does not guarantee universal access
Differentiated tuition fees spark outrage amongst out-of-province students ELOISE HIRST (3L) AND MEAZA DAMTE (3L)
TAYLOR RODRIGUES (2L)
OUT-OF-PROVINCE TUITION INCITES FRUSTRATION FOR SOME U OF T LAW STUDENTS. CREDIT: SHAE ROTHERY
On March 31, 2022, U of T’s Governing Council approved a three percent increase for domestic non-Ontario resident student (colloquially, out-of-province student) undergraduate tuition across all faculties at the University. In their reasoning, Governing Council cited Premier Doug Ford’s 2019 tuition cut and the ongoing cap on domestic tuition increases as justif ication to raise tuition for students who reside outside of Ontario. According to Governing Council, with rising operating costs and declining international student tuition revenues during the pandemic, they didn’t have a choice. Governing Council also approved a f ive percent increase on international student tuition. While the three percent increase may be minor on a $6,590 tuition bill, the same cannot be said for our law school. At the Faculty of Law, tuition is already thousands
of dollars higher than every other law school in Canada. The extra three percent is the last straw. With this increase, the highest ranked law school in the country further risks losing top talent from across the country, in exchange for roughly $120,000 (the approximate amount the tuition increase will generate) on top of a $30 million dollar budget. Students have already contributed signif icant time and effort advocating against U of T Law’s high tuition rates, but to what end? Last year, Dean Brunnée struck a Tuition Roundtable, seeking constructive feedback about tuition-related issues. Shortly after the last Roundtable discussion, students became aware of Governing Council’s intention to increase tuition for out-of-province students. Students were blindsided by this decision, immediately turning to Dean Brunnée and Faculty Council to advocate
for the out-of-province student population at U of T Law, which comprises roughly one f ifth of the student body. Instead of advocating, the Faculty was silent, tacitly accepting the tuition fee changes. We took that personally. The Students’ Law Society (SLS) vocally opposed the policy decision. 2021–22 SLS President Willem Crispen-Frei gave impassioned and well-researched speeches at both Faculty Council and Governing Council. We were told that it was out of the law school’s hands. After volunteering *literally* hundreds of hours advocating on behalf of students to lower tuition, we were met with an even higher tuition invoice. Doug Ford’s tuition cut in 2019 provided students at the Faculty with much-needed relief from the exorbitant tuition debt load. This relief, however, was short-lived. Despite good faith efforts to address the tuition
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
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U of T Law has changed its Lecture Recording Policy for the 2022–23 academic year, expanding the situations where lectures can be recorded and distributed to students. Under the current Lecture Recording Policy, instructors may choose to record their lectures and distribute the recordings to the entire class. A lternatively, students may seek an accommodation to receive a copy of their instructor’s recordings or to make their own recordings of their instructor’s lectures. Instructors must notify their students in class or on the syllabus if any of their lectures will be recorded. Under U of T Law’s earlier Pilot Lecture Recording Policy, in force from February 28 to August 18, 2022, the university permitted instructors to choose to record their lectures and distribute them to all students. Access to an instructor’s recordings was a potential accommodation for some disabilities, illnesses and “one-of f circumstances” (e.g., religious observances, caretaking responsibilities, death in the family, etc). Students were not permitted to make their own recordings of their instructor’s lectures. Neither the current Lecture Recording Policy nor the Pilot Lecture Recording Policy made substantive changes to U of T Law’s Attendance Policy. The Attendance Policy expects students to attend class in person on a “regular basis,” which usually means attending at least 75 percent of a course. U of T Law does not excuse students from attending class in person because they received a recording. The University can grant accommodations to the Attendance Policy for religious observations, illness and other personal circumstances. Prior to the Pilot Lecture Recording Policy, the Faculty prohibited all recordings of lectures—even if the instructor and the class consented to a recording. This policy appears to have been inconsistent with the University of Toronto’s Provostial Guidelines on the Appropriate Use of Information and Communication Technolog y. The Provostial Guidelines state that U of T students may record instructors’ lectures if they receive the prior written consent of the instructor and that in the case of students requesting to record lectures as an accommodation for a disability, “the instructor’s consent must not be unreasonably Continued on page 3
GUIDE TO TORONTO
RIGHTS REVIEW
RECONSIDERING THE CROWN
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