Students in Greater Sudbury joined their peers across the province Wednesday in walking out of class to protest provincial cuts to education.
Sudbury.com attended protests at Laurentian University, as well as at St. Charles College and Sudbury Secondary School.
The high school students focused on plans announced by the Doug Ford government last week to increase class size caps, while the university students zeroed in on the axing of a free tuition program.
The protest at Laurentian was organized by campus branches of the Revolutionary Student Movement (RSM) and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
About 20 students took part in a march from one end of the Laurentian campus to the other, followed by a rally in front of the Parker Building.
They chanted slogans including “F**k Ford!” while fellow students not involved in the protest filtered through the rally in the high-traffic area of campus.
One of the protesters, Sara Bana, a third-year student in Laurentian's social work program, said she went back to school a few years ago as a mature student because of the free tuition program brought in by the previous Liberals.
Under that program, low-income students could qualify for grants large enough to cover the full cost of tuition under the previous plan, but now a portion of the funding they receive will be a loan.
In January, the Progressive Conservatives eliminated the free tuition program while imposing a 10 per cent across-the-board tuition fee cut, and made several once-mandatory student fees, such as those that fund campus organizations and clubs, optional.
Bana said students are “pissed” about the changes.
“It affects me as a low-income student because I relied on this free tuition in order to graduate from university in a way that I'd be able to get myself back on my feet,” she said.
“I expected to be able to move forward my education, and now I'm left wondering if I can even continue being at school because of the grants being cut.”
Bana, a member of the Revolutionary Student Movement, said she'd like to see tuition abolished, and all outstanding student debt forgiven.
“We're not just pushing back against the Ford changes to the OSAP funding, we're pushing back against decades of students being gouged and graduating with ridiculous amounts of debt,” she said.
Jacob Wenghofer, a fourth-year political science student at Laurentian, said he's lucky not to have been severely impacted by the Ford government's cuts.
“But I do know, for example my fiancée, she's already in serious debt because she had to take out loans to come here,” he said.
“I know several of my friends are worrying they're not going to be able to finish their degrees because they can't afford it anymore. They're worried about what's going to happen once they graduate. Will they be able to afford a house, afford kids, afford a life?
“That has really gotten me riled up, and it's gotten a lot of other students angry I think.”
-With files from Canadian Press
