{"id":19013,"date":"2020-02-13T09:34:31","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T17:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=19013"},"modified":"2020-02-14T14:30:40","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T22:30:40","slug":"camosun-board-of-governors-approves-new-student-services-fee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/02\/13\/camosun-board-of-governors-approves-new-student-services-fee\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun board of governors approves new Student Services fee"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Camosun College board of governors approved a new Student Services fee at its meeting on Monday, February 3. The fee, effective September of this year, will cost each full-time student $52.50 per semester; part-time students will pay $26.25 per semester. Details on the fee are still being finalized.<\/p>\n

The fee will be used for services and programs led by the college\u2019s Student Services department. According to the college meeting agenda, the fees will go toward, among other things, \u201cservices and programs related to the physical and psychological health and well-being of students,\u201d \u201csocial, recreational, and cultural activities and programs,\u201d academic and career planning, learning supports, campus life and engagement, and financial aid and awards.<\/p>\n

The college has been working on the fee details with the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS), with the two organizations having monthly meetings for almost two years to figure out details.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe college approached us in relation to instituting a Student Services Fee to cover those non-academic services,\u201d says CCSS executive director Michel Turcotte. \u201cWe\u2019re pretty much the only institution in British Columbia that doesn\u2019t have that type of fee currently, and it was felt that the services were needing that sort of a boost.\u201d<\/p>\n

CCSS external executive Fillette Umulisa says that the two-year process of getting this fee together started with input from Camosun students.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudent feedback led to this,\u201d says Umulisa. \u201cThey had students tell them that it wasn\u2019t enough, the waiting list was too long for services like counselling, the library was only open until a certain time when students need it, so they felt the need to increase those services. So they did an electronic survey in 2018, and the results were overwhelmingly in favour of increasing the services that are provided on both campuses. That\u2019s how we got here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun students will be paying a new Student Services fee in September (file photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Camosun vice president of student experience Heather Cummings says the college is very excited about the fee, and is also excited about the Student Advisory Committee that is being set up around the fee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very, very excited,\u201d she says. \u201cAs excited as anyone can be when you introduce a fee for students. We\u2019re excited about the opportunities that the fee is presenting us, in terms of being able to invest further in services. We\u2019re excited that we\u2019re going to be able to be responsive, and we\u2019re also very excited about how we set up this fee with the Student Advisory Committee.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is being proposed currently is that the committee be made up of, according to Cummings, \u201ca couple of college representatives as well as a number of student society representatives, and a number of students at large.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought was to basically invite students to identify themselves as someone who wants to be on the committee,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re only going to meet a couple times a year but it really is just to check in\u2014how did we spend the money? Where did we spend the money? What are the numbers? Are students using those services? Is that the right service for us to be investing in? Where are students still seeing some challenges in terms of accessing support?\u201d<\/p>\n

The CCSS will receive six percent of the total fees collected each fiscal year to go toward existing CCSS programs that are in line with the new fee\u2019s objectives. Turcotte\u2014who says that the CCSS will hold the college accountable for where the money goes and will have regular reviews to see that data\u2014says that this will help avoid the college and the CCSS offering the same services.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that I\u2019ve noticed in looking at these fees across the province is that sometimes when institutions bring in a fee and it hasn\u2019t been quite as organized in how to do it, then they\u2019re looking at how to spend it, often the student society and institution end up in a bit of conflict, because they\u2019re trying to operate in the same areas. So part of the discussions we had in the agreement was that we wanted to avoid the duplication of services, because if you\u2019re going to collect a fee from students, you want to make sure that you\u2019re being as efficient as possible in as many ways, and duplication never provides financial efficiency. The six percent we get is actually to enhance some of the related services we offer while ensuring that we\u2019re not duplicating services provided by the college and vice versa.\u201d<\/p>\n

First-year University Transfer student Luke Leger says he is okay with paying the fee as long as it\u2019s implemented properly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it would be useful if everything\u2019s being provided well,\u201d he says. \u201cI think it\u2019s a small fee to pay for mental health\u00a0and physical health; I don\u2019t know what that pertains to exactly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leger adds that while he sees the potential for the fee to be a good thing, he feels it should be optional, like dental and extended health is.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not essential. Yes, taking care of your mental health is very good for you, and your physical health,\u201d he says, adding that students should have the right to choose.<\/p>\n

First-year Early Learning and Care student Hailey Flader says that the fee looks good on paper but it\u2019s one of those things you need to see in action and notes that she knows students who do find fees difficult financially.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems reasonable,\u201d she says. \u201cMyself, I don\u2019t pay for my education, but I know that a lot of my friends do and they struggle with the already [existing] student fees,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Flader says that it\u2019s the little things that add up when it comes to finances, so she as well mentions that it could be an idea to make it an optional fee depending on the resources you intend to use.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople like me would be a part of it. I wouldn\u2019t mind,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I know some people really struggle paycheque to paycheque.\u201d<\/p>\n

First-year student Patricia Sterling\u2014who has not yet chosen a program, but studies psychology\u2014says that it\u2019s a reasonable fee considering it\u2019s covering services students need.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to be funded if students are taking advantage of the services,\u201d she says. \u201cI think it makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummings says that the college always considers whether it is possible to facilitate a way for students to opt out of a fee, but with that comes other challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we create the ability to opt out, that means that a smaller number of students would be contributing to cover those services. We have no ability at this point to tell students, \u2018You can\u2019t access the service,\u2019 so then it would end up being subsidized by a few and used by the mass. I guess my simplest answer is when you apply the fee to everybody it creates more affordable access. So for $52.50 a full-time student literally will have increased access to services that would cost exponentially more if they were to trying to access them on their own, off campus, or if it was a fee for service. So it is the drawback to having that type of principle going into fees, and I do appreciate students that wish that was an option, it just currently is not the option.\u201d<\/p>\n

One way that students who are concerned about the fee not being optional could have had their say would have been a referendum to let the students decide if they want this fee or not. Turcotte says that this is something that was discussed, but in the end the college decided to make the decision to implement the fee.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it was discussed,\u201d he says. \u201cVarious options were discussed, including the idea of having a referendum on this. In British Columbia, there\u2019s two ways of implementing fees on students. One way is doing it through your student societies, and you have to do a referendum in that case, or the institutions can do it and get the Ministry [of Advanced Education, Skills and Training] to approve. Ultimately, the institution decided that it would be better to have this as an institutional fee, and that\u2019s their choice, and considering most of the money is going to enhance their programs and services, in some ways that may make more practical sense in this particular instance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummings says that while the college didn\u2019t do a referendum, it did still get student input to how the fee will be implemented.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I understand it, a referendum was not a requirement for us to implement this fee, but we did want students to be consulted, and we did want to have a process by which there was some accountability around such a fee,\u201d she says. \u201cSome of the things you look for through a referendum we thought we would build in within the consultation process we did as well as the MOU [memorandum of understanding]. So in that way we\u2019ve kind of made sure that students are the voice behind how we implement the fee, and that there\u2019s processes built in place to get that feedback from them. So it\u2019s my understanding that that\u2019s why we went the route of the MOU, so that we were getting that type of feedback from students but we were also creating the accountability in the fee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turcotte\u2014who feels this could be used as a model for similar fees in BC\u2014admits that it\u2019s never easy for student societies to want to accept the idea of more student fees, and he says that it\u2019s \u201cunusual\u201d for a student society to work this closely with its students\u2019 institution, but he feels there are useful tradeoffs on both sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a brand-new experience for us,\u201d says Turcotte. \u201cWe\u2019ve never quite been sitting on this side of the table or having this experience. When this conversation started, we were left with certain choices, and compared to how it works at most other institutions, I think students will ultimately benefit more from the model we\u2019ve adopted at Camosun, because of that level of cooperation and mutual respect between both the college and student society that will lead to greater accountability in how this fee works out in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Cummings says that working closely with student societies is par for the course for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not used to it working any other way,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is the model I used in my previous life at another institution. I didn\u2019t negotiate fees like this without this type of partnership, and it was a partnership that we had an MOU on; we would have a Student Advisory Committee providing us constant feedback. It was great, so, yeah, I know it\u2019s new for Camosun and folks here, but it\u2019s not new for me. This is just my way of doing business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Camosun College board of governors approved a new Student Services fee at its meeting on Monday, February 3. The fee, effective September of this year, will cost each full-time student $52.50 per semester; part-time students will pay $26.25 per semester. Details on the fee are still being finalized. The fee will be used for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19013"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19027,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19013\/revisions\/19027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}