Opinion: Why go to the Day of Action? Because student protests work

A case for student activism

Old protest
Tuition protest in 1998 (https://munsu.ca/history)

People are often skeptical that student action can inspire change, but MUN students are serious when it comes to protesting their continually rising tuition fees.

An influx of posters have appeared on MUN’s St. John’s campus, pointing out various infrastructure issues and safety hazards. These issues are central to the Day of Action protest, set to take place tomorrow on Wednesday, October 2nd.

Students are calling on the university and the provincial government to reverse recent tuition hikes, fairly compensate students on unpaid work terms, fix the crumbling infrastructure, and appropriately address safety concerns, leaks, and asbestos in the MUNnels. 

MUN students are no strangers to broken elevators, mysterious leaks in the MUNnels with buckets stationed around campus, and signage warning passers-by of components containing asbestos. These infrastructure shortcomings pose major safety and accessibility concerns for students, faculty, and staff alike, affecting morale and overall campus life significantly. 

Following pressure applied by similar student action in 1999, the provincial government allocated funding to enact a tuition freeze, an arrangement that remained in place until 2022. For 23 years, this allowed students to prioritize their studies over tuition costs. However, beginning in Fall 2022, after a decade of consistent cuts to funding, Memorial introduced a new tuition framework, causing fees to more than double for new students.

This subjects both domestic and international students to an annual four percent increase in tuition fees, compensating for the dissipation of the $68.4 million yearly government funding, to be phased out over 5 years. These tuition hikes come amidst a cost-of-living and housing crisis in our province, placing a substantial amount of additional financial stress on students. Alida Zedel, MUNSU’s Executive Director of Campaigns, stressed the need for consistent government funding for MUN, and said that they “don’t want the expenses of the university to be on the backs of students.” 

Alida Zedel
“If everyone who believed that tuition should be lower attended the protest, pretty much the entire school would come out” said Alida Zedel, MUNSU Executive Director of Campaigns. (Kyle Phillips/The Muse)

After the 2022 Student Day of Action, Premier Andrew Furey committed to a re-evaluation of funding over a year and a half ago, citing that he did not “want this institution to become more unstable and uncertain,” but has since not upheld this promise. However, the provincial government announced plans to cover the $50 “campus renewal fee,” designating up to $10 million in funding (adjusted to $6.5 million) to remove this fee for students. This is a recent example of how protests can get results.

While the elimination of the campus renewal fee was a notable success, students remain increasingly frustrated that tuition fees rise as their campus deteriorates with seemingly no immediate plans to fix it. 

Workers and students team up for #FundMUN

On September 24, 2024, the ‘Fund MUN‘ campaign was announced. The allied student and worker coalition launched a website with their demands, as well as an email campaign addressed to government representatives to incite conversations around funding. Fund MUN encouraged students to seek information about the day of action, detailing their main objectives to be highlighting the negative effects of budget cuts over the years to not only MUN, but the provincial economy as a whole, and calling on Premier Furey directly to end his silence on student issues, stop the cuts and reinstate funding to MUN. 

Due to the success of student protests over the years, students are holding out hope that the day of action on October 2nd will see a good turnout and yield some positive effects. Zedel emphasizes strength in numbers, saying that “just showing up and seeing what its about is a huge step – if everyone who believed that tuition should be lower attended the protest, pretty much the entire school would come out,” they said, “we can get what we want as long as we come out and work together in solidarity with one another.”

We asked students on campus if they plan to attend the protest, and the responses were varied, with some students supporting the cause, some opposing, and others who were unaware of the day of action’s objectives. A few students articulated their support, saying that education should be made more accessible, and a few others had doubts that the protest will incite any real change. But our history has shown, student protest works.

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Lee Hurley
Lee is a third year undergraduate student studying Communications and Media Studies. They’re passionate about music, culture and media theory. They hope to go to journalism school after graduating from MUN.