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CCSS external executive Rachael Grant says that while there has been progress through these meetings, there are still unaddressed issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cVarious institutions, including Camosun, are chronically under-funded; we are 49-percent funded by the government every year, and the rest is derived from student fees. That\u2019s an issue; that\u2019s less than it used to be,\u201d says Grant. \u201cWe have buildings that are literally falling apart… there\u2019s no more fat left to skim.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant says many of Camosun\u2019s older buildings go without maintenance as funds are redirected to cover for curriculum cuts and to cap tuition fees.<\/p>\n
The CCSS is also battling to reinstate grants and bursaries that previously assisted low-income students and applied to the majority of programs offered at the college. That grant money has been shifted away from general studies to supplement BC\u2019s Skills for Jobs Blueprint, which puts priority on trades useful in the growing liquid natural gas industry, says Grant.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not incredibly informative and in some areas it\u2019s lacking… it states liquid natural gas is the future of higher education,\u201d says Grant of the Blueprint. \u201c[Funding] shouldn\u2019t be influencing students\u2019 dreams. You can have the education you always dreamed of, if it\u2019s in the trades. Education is essentially a right, and our current government does not prioritize postsecondary education.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an email statement to Nexus<\/i>, Minister of Advanced Education Amrik Virk reinforced his ministry\u2019s focus on a long-term collaborative effort to \u201cmaximize the government\u2019s investments in BC education,\u201d which includes implementing B.C\u2019s Skills for Jobs Blueprint.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a challenge that I know Camosun College will rise up and meet,\u201d says Virk.<\/p>\n
But this severely limits the freedom of institutions to provide equal funding to every department, according to Grant, forcing them to spread the remaining resources thin.<\/p>\n
For students at the college, these issues may not be immediately apparent, and some aren\u2019t yet aware of the CCSS\u2019 efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no idea what the student society does. I only heard of them during the first week of classes,\u201d says second-year Criminology student Troy Philip.<\/p>\n
Other students are more enthusiastic about the CCSS advocating on their behalf.<\/p>\n
\u201cFunding is definitely important,\u201d says first-year Criminology student Jane Egan.<\/p>\n
The student society\u2019s talks with government officials will continue throughout the remainder of the year, says Grant, putting pressure on the government to provide funding to the college, which is currently operating at 98 percent enrollment capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Members of the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) recently met with government officials to discuss and mediate student and institutional concerns. On Friday, September 5, the CCSS members met with MP Murray Rankin. Then, on Tuesday, September 9, they met with NDP Advanced Education Critic Kathy Corrigan, MLA Rob Fleming, and MLA Carole James. Hot-button […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9589,"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":[13,132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-october-1-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9585","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=9585"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9590,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9585\/revisions\/9590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}