By Jill Reeves, January 15 2025—
The first Student’s Legislative Council (SLC) meeting of the year was held on the first Tuesday of January. The council discussed a post-report of the Board of Governors meeting, which included key topics of increased tuition and fees, as well as updates to the matter of an independent investigation of the events on May 9.
The post-report was presented by the Board of Governors representative Siraaj Shah. It began with a discussion of approved capital projects, including amendments to tuition and fees.
“The more important piece was approval of the 2025-2026 tuition and fees. So what the university proposed was for us to have a domestic increase of two per cent, an international increase of 4 percent, as well as MNIF’s increasing at four per cent,” said Shah.
The SU opposed these increases and suggested that the board consider public advocacy for operating grants, instead of hiking student tuition and fees. Shah also explained the initial justification for these increases.
“Now, the university's justification on these tuition and fees is very similar to what we've seen in previous years, which is that due to inflationary pressures, due to, you know, the Alberta campus grant, not being enough to fulfill the university's expenses. The only way to do so is through tuition increases,” he added.
Furthermore, the University approved the 2025-26 rates for residence, meal plans and parking. The SU voted against increases to the rates of residence and meal plans, however, they were in favour of increasing parking rates.
The discussion then shifted to the release of the MNP report of the events of May 9.
“And so based off of what is publicly available, what I will say is that our concerns generally speaking on this piece was that, you know, the scope of the review was extremely limited. It did not account for various different factors. It is only a part of the piece of many different factors since it was only reviewing the actions of CMP,” Shah explained.
Although the GFC motion was expected to be presented during the Board of Governors meeting, SLC states that it is unlikely that it will be brought up. The university bylaws state that the discussion of a motion fulfills its requirements of consideration, and thus will most likely not be voted on as the board has no further appetite for continuing the conversation.
For agendas, minutes and upcoming meetings, visit the SU website.
