To: Heather Munroe-Blum
PRECIS
This letter is an initiative of McGill students, professors and staff, domestic and international, in-province and out-of-province concerned with the state and the fate of post-secondary education in Quebec and at McGill. Our goal in writing to you is to urgently express the views of the undersigned members of the McGill community who support the following principles:
We support the initiatives undertaken by the Quebec student federations as well as those making themselves heard on their own terms; we condemn any and all punitive action taken or proposed by the university against students, faculty and staff participating in political dialogue surrounding the
following issues; we oppose the McGill administrationÂ’s call for tuition fee increases to achieve their funding goals; we call for increased and continued investment in education and the support of our University.
LETTER
The provincial government\'s cuts to student loans and bursaries affects all levels of education in Quebec. Further, these cuts have jeopardized federal education funding including alloted funds from the Millenium Scholarship Foundation. Consequently, the academic community now finds itself facing increasing shortfalls in funds earmarked to reduce student debt and provide assistance to low-income students.
As McGill students, professors and staff, domestic and international, in-province and out-of-province, these cuts damage our future and that of the education system. We have invested our time, our energy, and our resources—indeed, ourselves—in the future of education at McGill. At all levels, education is the motor of the economy. Thus we find ourselves dismayed by the administration\'s lack of support in the face of government cuts that threaten the very well-being of education in Quebec and that follow disturbing trends to escalate the cost of education in Canada.
As part of the broader Quebec academic community, McGill has a responsibility to stand alongside our colleagues and to support efforts to ensure high-quality public education is available to all.
Student pressure on these issues has yielded positive results. The tabling of government offers is a direct response to student accomplishments in publicizing the extent to which such cuts harm the fabric of society. At McGill we encourage these offers. Yet, while these offers represent an affirmative first step, they remain merely a first step that only restores the bare minimum of support to Quebec education.
The McGill administration encourages continued dialogue between the government and student groups. All members of the academic community must be free to participate in this dialogue if it is to bring about a solution. This dialogue cannot take place through one-way communication strategies fostered by administration press releases and internal communiques that divide sectors of the academic community against each other.
Given the gravity of these cutbacks and the disciplinary positions already taken by the McGill administration, we strongly condemn any and all punitive action taken or proposed by the university against students, faculty and staff participating in this dialogue. The loss of 173 million in education is a far more disruptive act than the expression of frustration by rightly concerned members of the academic community. Freedom of expression and the right to strike are integral to encouraging further discussion, supporting the broader academic community and publicizing these issues.
In conjunction with the Post Graduate Student Society of McGill University (PGSS), we support the initiatives undertaken by the Quebec student federations as well as those making themselves heard on their own terms.
We all share a concern not only for our generation but for those that follow. The funding framework must be redesigned for the benefit of all students in a way that does not mortgage their future.
For these reasons, we strongly oppose the McGill administrationÂ’s call for tuition fee increases to achieve these goals. Tuition increases transfer the social responsibility of educating future generations to todayÂ’s students alone. Increasing tuition fees to fund additional loans will only further harm Quebec\'s poorest students.
We join our voices with the hundreds of thousands and call for the restoration of the funds cut from education. But this is only a first step. We call for increased and continued investment in education and the support of our University.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
This letter can be signed online at:
http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/mcgill_letter