We love to hear from you! Send your questions and comments to voice@ausu.org, and please indicate if we may publish your letter.

Fellow Students:

Having just read a recent article in The Voice about the inevitability of
tuition increases, one wonders when the rising tide will overwhelm the
vast majority of students (and future students) to the point of tossing in the towel and heading to the golden arches in resignation and disgust. I think it’s high time we joined forces with other university unions, organizations and bodies and demand an immediate end to this madness. Free tuition seems to be a better and yet perhaps more utopian goal but one nonetheless worth fighting for. Countries such as Ireland have had free tuition for years, which, along with reductions in corporate taxes, has made it the ‘Celtic Tiger’ of Europe.

Making undergraduate education freely available for those who desire and can achieve it seems a worthy goal, now recognized as the minimum to full participation in a modern technological society. How long can we wait before an undergraduate education eludes most who may have the ability but not the means to afford it. Athabasca Students unite!

Regards,
Robert Williams
MAIS Student

Thanks for the inspiration, Robert. Free tution — in the form of grants — is one request made by AUSU in their recent submission to Alberta Learning. See the AUSU front page for a link to download this document. AUSU will keep you posted on any responses to this submission.