The university protest mentality is a vestige of the 1960s. It was the culmination of a series of serious social changes that sought to change the power structure of the establishment and united much of a generation through common experience.
But that was 40 years ago, and the continued commitment to a protest culture here at the University of Calgary is antiquated and ineffective.
There is no doubt policy makers must be held to account and, as a key component of the democratic process, students must play a significant role in the decisions that affect them. But trying to embarrass politicians and administrators into action through protest is long past its time and has become largely counterproductive. Rather than play a role in policy processes, protests are dismissed as simply another generation of rebellious youth that will settle down once they graduate.
A conciliatory and cooperative approach is far more effective in influencing government and university policy in our modern age. Last year, Tent City cost the Students’ Union more than $30,000 and had nothing regarding tuition to show for it. While complaining about rising costs for students, the very same Students’ Union used vast sums of student money to no avail.
This year, the Students’ Union has met with significant success in influencing Bill 43 without protest, without parades and without spending $30,000. We managed to get student representation, the removal of the Board of Governors from the audit, borrowing powers and legislation for students’ unions included in the bill.
There has been a significant push this year to focus on educating the community about the current situation at the U of C. Numerous presentations about rising tuition and a lack of government funding for this institution have been a focal point. Presentations have occurred at Calgary Caucus, Senate, Rotary Club and the Calgary Foothill constituency association.
On Oct. 31, there was an extremely successful Halloween food drive for our campus food bank, with over 2,000 pounds of food collected and over 100 volunteers educating the community about Bill 43’s removal of the tuition cap and it’s ramifications.
This year, there has been an acknowledgement that making post-secondary education an issue in Alberta is only going to happen through a long-term strategy of educating the public. If the message comes from not only students, administration and teachers, but also parents, professionals and taxpayers, the likelihood to achieve change is that much greater.
The lessons of the past need to be learned and applied in our approach with government and university policy makers. It is not reasonable on one hand to seek to embarrass them in public, and then on the other to expect them to cooperate on matters important to students.
In my term, I have committed myself to a cooperative approach and do not think the success of the SU should be measured in the number of posters, or in the number of tents we manage to erect on Mac Hall’s front lawn.
Instead, in measuring our successes and failures over my term, I will look to the quality of services we deliver to students, our ability to cooperate with government and university officials, and our accountability in spending student funds.