After the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) put on pressure, Camosun College has compromised on its new fee deadline structure.
On Tuesday, July 12, the CCSS sent out a survey to Camosun students via email requesting feedback on Camosun’s recent decision to move tuition and fee deadlines (see our story with full details here).
Within 36 hours, the survey received 800 responses, and 74 percent said they were unaware of these changes. Of those responses, 52.5 percent said these changes affected them very badly. As of Tuesday, July 19, the CCSS has received 1,022 responses to the survey.
According to CCSS external executive Jessie Niikoi, the survey recently closed and the majority of students who responded do not support this fee deadline change and had no idea about it until the CCSS sent the survey. (Nexus has seen the survey results and the responses are overwhelmingly negative toward the changes.)
On Thursday, July 14, the CCSS met with Camosun College registrar Scott Harris to discuss the survey results.
“With the meeting we had with Scott Harris,” says Niikoi, “there were a few things we brought up, like how we felt the students are feeling with the survey and personal experiences… we heard from our fellow students in response.”
Niikoi says that at the meeting the CCSS got some more clarification on how the school will offer support for students who experience financial struggles due to this changed fee deadline.
“According to [Harris],” says Niikoi, “students will not be deregistered if they make substantive progress on their payments… The registrar has been informed to also make a compassionate response to those deferring.”
On the afternoon of Tuesday, July 19, the CCSS sent out a message on its Instagram story saying that they have secured a compromise on the new course fee deadline with the college. The message says that “If you are able to pay 50% of your course fee by the 16th August deadline you will NOT be removed from your courses,” adding that you do not need to apply for a deferral in order to do this. The message goes on to say that if you can’t meet the 50 percent deadline, you should apply for a deferral, and that the CCSS has “been advised that the college will be very generous in granting these” deferrals.
The CCSS said in a second Instagram story that the college will be sending out an email soon detailing these changes.
Niikoi says that she hopes the college will learn from its mistake of implementing a significant policy that affects its students and, next time, will include them in the decision.
“Personally, I’m hoping the college realizes that students make a big part of the decisions that they make,” she says. “We’re their stakeholders right now. We’re paying more in terms of funding… we’re funding more for tuition than the money they get from the government. So, if you’re making a decision that impacts us, we should have a major say and major vote in something like that. I’m just hoping the college realizes that if they’re ever going to make another decision, they should come to us before.”