On today’s CHMA daily news:
- Town council to talk summer events tonight
- Checking the numbers on Mount A’s tuition increase
- Will a tuition hike keep students away?
- ECMA’s go mostly to men
- Taking the Mount Allison theatre season online.
- and the COVID numbers update for the Maritimes.
COVID Numbers
New Brunswick reported no new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday – marking its third consecutive day without a positive case.
The number of active cases remains at one.
There are no new cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia, leaving only three active cases in the province.
A Prince Edward Island woman in her 80s has tested positive for COVID-19, the province’s chief public health officer said Sunday.
In a brief statement, Dr. Heather Morrison said the Queens County woman is self-isolating at home and contact tracing is underway. Morrison said the new case is not believed to be linked to a recent COVID-19 cluster in P.E.I. or to a Charlottetown seniors’ residence where a worker had tested positive.
Town council to talk summer events
Sackville town council will meet online again tonight at 6:30pm.
Councillors will be considering motions for support of two events happening this summer in Sackville.
Sappyfest has asked the town for some accommodations around the site of the Terra Beata cranberry freezer, where they are planning to stage projections along with Struts and Owens galleries.
Levee on the Lake has requested funding to support their new, free concert series on the shores of Silver Lake.
Organizers are asking for $12,000 in cash from the town in order to help put on three different concerts, the first of which happens this Saturday, July 18th.
Both events are promising social distancing guidelines will be met.
Sappyfest plans to mark out a limited viewing area with 4 metre blocks, and Levee on the Lake is asking audience members to attend the free concert from the lake, in the watercraft of their choice.
The town does not release the text of proposed motions in advance, so it’s unclear yet how much funding will be proposed, or how it will be disbursed.
Justifying a Mount Allison tuition hike
A Mount Allison math professor is calling into question the university’s explanation that the four-point-five percent tuition increase announced last week is due to annually rising costs.
Assistant professor of math and computer science Matt Betti says that cost of living and inflation alone do not justify the tuition increase.
Betti points out that faculty have a negotiated one percent cost of living increase in their contract for this year, and that senior administrators will not see any cost of living increases.
Click to listen:
“By the university’s own admission, staffing is 75% of their expenses. And like I mentioned, I’m a mathematician. So in order to get to 4.5%, the staff increased cost of living increase must be quite a bit greater than 4.5%. If it’s comparable to the other increases we see in, say, the faculty union, it’s likely around 2% if it wants to keep up with inflation. And so the bulk of what they claim their expenses are is not justifying a 4.5% increase in tuition.“
Inflation may not be much of a factor in the university’s non-labour costs either this year.
The inflation rate for consumer goods took at dive starting in March of this year.
New Brunswick’s annual rate of inflation fell to zero in April, and even went slightly negative in May.
That means the cost of a sample basket of goods actually stayed the same or went down slightly.
Betti also takes issue with the university’s predictions for dramatically reduced enrolment this year, and does not see it as cause for a tuition increase.
Click to listen:
“The university projects lowered enrolment this year. In my personal experience, I’m teaching first year calculus which is a required course for all incoming science students. Our numbers usually hover around 300. This year’s enrolment as of yesterday is about 270 students. It’s not a dramatic decrease. It is lower, I think it’d be unreasonable not to expect some lower enrolment this year than previous years, but it’s not dramatically lower. In fact, I’d say that in past years, that’s closer to the student enrolment at the end of the term after students have dropped the course or cancelled.“
Betti says he would like to see “more open, clear, and transparent dialogue” from Mount Allison about the tuition increase going forward.
Will a Mount Allison tuition hike drive away students?
One Mount Allison student says he worries that by increasing tuition this year, the university could be driving away students.
Justin Hughes is a fourth year Computer Science student who says his tuition has gone up 15% since his first year.
Click to listen:
“Many students will probably be looking at taking either like taking a gap year or completely going to a different school together.”
Hughes points out the Mount Allison has the highest undergraduate tuition in the country, and many other schools offer lower rates.
He thinks a tuition freeze, or even a reduction, could have helped Mount Allison recruit students back to classes, even though they are mostly online.
After hearing about the tuition hike through social media on Tuesday, Hughes started an online petition to protest the hike.
Click to listen:
“Seeing that there are other people that have the same issue definitely, definitely fueled my desire to do something about it.”
Hughes also worries that he might not be getting as much value from his educational experience this year, due to classes being moved online, with only some on-campus components.
Click to listen:
“I think that if students are put in this position where they don’t have a professor who is quite as available as an in person class, then they shouldn’t have to pay as much because they’re not getting as much out of the class.”
A survey commissioned earlier this year seems to indicate Hughes is not alone with his concerns.
The Canadian Association of University Teachers and the Canadian Federation of Students commissioned the survey which shows a significant number of students are reconsidering their plans for university and college in the fall, citing lost income, limited support, and concerns about the quality of remote learning.
The survey found that among students who said they could still afford school, about 75 per cent were worried that distance learning would create a poor learning experience.
Hughes says while he knows that rising tuition is a problem at other universities, he feels the Mount Allison administration needs to do more to help keep student fees affordable.
ECMAs have significant gender imbalance
The annual East Coast Music Awards got handed out this weekend in a pre-recorded broadcast from St. John’s, and the list of winners shows a dramatic gender imbalance.
23 of the 27 music category awards went to men or all-male bands.
Only 4 music category awards—less than 15%—went to women or bands with women.
Promoter Kimberley Sinclair told CBC that the dominance of male winners in the ECMAs does not match the industry as she experiences it.
She says ECMAs should embrace a sunshine policy, to cast some light on how nominations are made, to help identify the problem.
Sinclair says the whole music industry on the East Coast needs to have a bigger conversation about making space for women.
As Mount Allison’s director of drama, Sarah Fanning has her work cut out for her, planning for a year of pandemic related public health restrictions.
Erica Butler called her up to find out more about how drama studies would weather the pandemic.
Click to listen:
That was Erica Butler in conversation with Mount Allision drama studies director Sarah Fanning.
CHMA Daily News is hosted Mahalia Thompson-Onichino, and produced by Erica Butler, with contributions from Bruce Wark, Meg Cunningham, Aura-Lynn Groomes, Geoff de Gannes, and James Anderson.
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