Around a hundred students rallied in front of Western’s UCC against the recently announced OSAP changes from the Ontario Progressive Conservative government.
Among the crowd were London MPPs Peggy Sattler and Terrence Kernaghan as they attended the protest as guest speakers for the event.
The PC government also announced that along with OSAP changes, tuition costs will decrease by 10% and turn mandatory student fees into optional fees. This will lead to a loss of $440 million in revenue for universities and colleges which London West MPP Peggy Sattler says will negatively impact the student experience in post-secondary institutions.
“We’re going to see larger classes, cancelled courses, and more precariously employed faculties as the institutions struggle trying to deal with impact of the multi-million cut in revenue.”
London MPPs @PeggySattlerNDP and @kernaghant participated in the #WesternU OSAP protest as guest speakers. #LdnOnt pic.twitter.com/xNFMMfN359
— XFM News (@XFMNews) January 18, 2019
In addition, the uncertainty of ancillary fees will lead to cuts from campus clubs, groups, events, and newspapers—which are all funded from student fees. Without this funding, students may lose these ‘non-essential’ services altogether.
The protest was announced the same day that the OSAP changes were announced and students organized just a day after. Among the group was Katelyn Mitri, President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada 610 who was also a teaching assistant at Western. Mitri says that the OSAP changes restrict low-income individuals from higher education.
“Those that come from lower-class backgrounds are going to have a harder time accessing higher education. Higher education is a basic human right and I feel like we are moving backwards with that especially targeting those lower-class students which is extremely unfair”
Mitri also says that cuts in non-repayable grants hurts students and especially teaching assistants.
“A lot of us rely on non-repayable grants as grad students and it helps us get through our education and potentially get our masters and PhD. [Education] is a basic human right, and everybody should have those rights. I would like the government to work towards that, not backwards.”
After organizing at Western’s Concrete Beach, protesters then proceeded to march around Western’s campus chanting, “we have a voice, no more Ford.”
