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A recent decision by Holland College's board of governors to introduce a $1,250 technology fee for subsidized courses to replace the lab fee students had to pay is not being met with nearly enough opposition. Increases to the cost of education on a year-to- year basis are pretty much par for the course for anyone seeking a post-secondary education, but in this case, the timing of the announcement and the amount of the increase are both hard to swallow. For next year's returning students, such as myself, the semi-good news is that we'll only have to pay $650 in technology fees. The first-year students will bear the brunt of it, having to shell out the full $1,250. In an interview, Alex MacAulay explained the new fee was necessary in order for the school to keep up with technological advancements in related industries. Without the fee, he says the institution will become second rate, no longer providing a top rate education. Make no mistake, I feel this is an admirable goal for Holland College. What good is it to attend an institution if the education you receive doesn't prepare you for the job you hope to land after graduation? The fact that the college waited until almost the end of a lot of people's first year to drop this bomb is what should be angering students. Of the 32 courses affected by this decision,students in 20 of them paid $350 or less in lab fees for the past year. Out of those, students in 10 courses paid $100 or less. Raising a fee by that much, 12 times the original amount and with only a few months notice, is quite a leap. The reason the fee will be the same for all courses is, MacAulay says, to be fair to everyone. Is it fair, however, to charge students in low technology courses, such as Early Childhood Education, the same amount as students in courses which rely heavily on computers? Crayola and Play-Doh must have really jacked their prices in the past few years. If the college slaps a fee like this on students every time it wants to buy new equipment, eventually only the wealthy will be able to go to school. MacAulay's argument is that there are courses here that are self-supporting and that those in subsidized courses have no real right to complain. Isn't the whole idea behind a subsidized course that people who normally couldn't take a course due to lack of financing, have the opportunity? It's hard enough for the children of low-income and middle-class families to get an education and it only seems to be getting worse. Part of the blame has to fall to us, however, because most of our society has become complacent about such things. We hate it when things like this happen, we grumble about it and maybe write a letter to someone, but that's usually the end of it. A few decades earlier students would have walked out in protest in response to this hefty increase. We are the consumers and that means if we are not happy with the service being provided, we have a right to complain. Student council presidents from Charlottetown, Royalty and Summerside centres have met with MacAulay about the technology fee increase and now intend to meet with class reps to decide what to do in response. Let's all bear in mind that if we want something done about this, we all have to make our wishes known. Student councils are there to represent us, but they can't do this if they don't know what everyone's feelings over the increase are. One of the best statements I've heard about the whole deal is that $1,250 is a hell of a lot of money to pay just so you can e-mail somebody, and that is really all a lot of students use the computers for. Hopefully those same students, and everyone else affected by this tuition-hike-in-a-technology-fees clothing will make use of the technology we're going to be paying so dearly for to e-mail their opinions to the people who think $1,250 isn't that much money for a student to come up with.
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