What would you say if I tried to convince you the sky was red? Probably something along the lines of "nice try, Bladek." If I tried to tell you I had an elephant stuck up my bum? "Yer nuts, Bladek." If I told you that over half of the students on campus have public student loans? "Yer cut off, Bladek."
Not so fast. One of those last three statements is true. And you’d better have guessed it was the third one. Yup, that’s right–11,000 University of Calgary students need government loans because the cost of post-secondary education is too high. The Students’ Union is fighting to decrease those costs to make higher schooling more affordable, but enough about tuition.
Let’s get back to loans for a minute. Under the Alberta student loan program, students get no more than $310 per month for rent, utilities, and no more than $170 per month for food. If you can find a place to live for $310 per month including utilities, please stop by my office and tell me where it is. And include a Polaroid so I know it’s not a rock in Peru (once again, nothing against Peruvian rocks–the commute would just be a total bitch). $170 a month equates to $1.75 a meal. This isn’t enough to eat any more than Ramen Noodles and a banana, each meal, every meal.
So while the SU and the Council of Alberta University Students continue to inform the provincial government regarding the inadequacies within the loan program, it’s time to start convincing the public. It so happens that convincing the public involves a free breakfast. Sweet deal!
That’s right: you’re invited to a free Student Loan Breakfast on Thu., Nov. 15, at 10 a.m. in MacEwan Student Centre. But because there’s no such thing as a free lunch or breakfast, there’s one catch–you only get as much food as a single student loan food allocation portion will pay for. That’s $1.75 worth of breakfast.
Hopefully, members of the U of C administration will attend, so come on down, get some free food, and ask administration why your tuition is going up when your student loan doesn’t allow you to eat adequately.
Eating is important (and not to mention fun), and I want to make sure that you’re well fed. As Kurt Gibson said in Major League: "big hit, happy body." As I said in this SLC View: "happy body, good grades." If you’re not eating well, don’t be afraid to stop by the Campus Food Bank in MSC 201.