Due to the financial hardships caused by COVID-19, the Laurentian University Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) asked that the university waive its members’ tuition fees for the spring/summer semester.
But with Laurentian itself facing a financial crunch, this request has “just been met with basically silence,” said Aaron St. Pierre, president of the GSA.
He said the group has about 1,000 members, and almost 300 signed a petition asking for tuition fees to be waived.
St. Pierre said he has brought the matter up with the university’s board of governors and at Senate meetings.
“Their chief concern I think is their own financial issues, and not the financial issues to students,” he said.
“Graduate students as a whole are typically financially burdened, never mind during the global pandemic, with all of the financial troubles that come with that.
“We asked the university to help with that, and we didn’t receive any help from the university. They allowed the late fees to be held off, but we were looking for a lot more than that.”
When Sudbury.com asked Laurentian about the issue, the university said in a written statement it has put a number of supports in place for graduate students.
That includes extending late fees for tuition payments until June 30, and investigating options to award the Graduate Teaching Assistantship/Fellowship earlier in the summer than usual, as well as award graduate student scholarship and bursaries earlier in the fall than usual.
The university also said a research resumption plan is in place so that graduate students can return to campus and the field to continue their research.
Many graduate students who were receiving payment from faculty supervisors for thesis-related research continue to be paid over the spring/summer, the university said.
Given Laurentian has not waived tuition fees, the GSA has dipped into its own funds, and came up with $20,000 in financial relief for its members.
The funds will be split between the 200 students who have applied for financial aid from the student association.
“We’re looking at ways we can help,” St. Pierre said. “We’ve been fortunate that due to our lobbying efforts, we were able to get a reduction in the amount of fees we have to pay for insurance and things like that.
“We’re directing all of those savings back to our students to try to help them. We’re basically dipping into our own funds to help our membership.”
St. Pierre said the last few months have been difficult for his members. On top of their own school workloads, many are teaching assistants who have been helping with undergrad classes that have gone online amid the pandemic.
“The pay for these positions is not substantial,” he said. “You have all of these very intelligent, hard-working people just trying to make it through these past few months, and just looking for help wherever they can get it.
“Our student association is trying really hard to help however we can. We’ll continue to advocate for our members, both to the university and to various levels of government, and to other organizations we’re associated with.”
