By Jon Roe
“Just give me a Pepsi free.”
“If you want a Pepsi pal, you’re going to pay for it!”
When Marty McFly found himself in 1955 Hill Valley in the first Back to the Future, he also found that the era of muscle cars and diners was hardly the same era of choice he was used to in 1985. There was no sugar-free Pepsi. Just plain ol’ Pepsi.
The recent decision by the University of Calgary to disallow credit cards to pay for tuition is a similar “back in time”-type move-though admittedly with more Pepsi. Considering cash is generally frowned upon (or socially discouraged for holding up the machine-like process of capitalism if you look at the recent spate of Visa check card commercials) and electronic forms of payment are becoming the norm, this decision perplexed some and struck a nerve with many others.
As one student colourfully put it on the wall of “Allow U of C students to pay tuition with credit cards,” a Facebook group, “i have one thing to say!!!! bullshit!!!! they can spend 1.4 million dollars on a digital library and not pay a fee so we can pay online! that is BULLSHIT!!!!!” [sic]
As another, similarly upset student put it, “always finding more ways to fuck us,,,, typical…” [sic]
The group had over 2,700 members at the time this editorial was written.
For a campus whose students have experienced a maximum tuition increase since the beginning of time, the outrage generated by this decision is counter-intuitive. The population may be apathetic, but if you take away their conveniences-egads-face the wrath of the Facebooking student masses.
In the long run, the credit card issue is not a huge obstacle to work around. No university in Ontario allows students to pay with credit cards. In fact, across the country, not allowing credit card payment for tuition is standard. The U of C, the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta-who made the same proclamations earlier this year-were exceptions to the rule.
The decision has also raised concerns from students about accessibility. For students who don’t have the money to pay their tuition when the semester starts and rely on credit cards as a stopgap until their student loans arrive, or students who don’t qualify for student loans, the decision is highly inconvenient, but is not the end of their university career. Credit cards are the simplest-but not the only-way to create money out of thin air. Banks offer lines of credit and overdrafts and, though they themselves can no longer be used to pay for tuition directly, credit cards offer cash advances-usually at slightly higher interest rates.
However, given the timing and schedule of events, in the short run this decision is ridiculous and frustrating. Students now have six months to figure out alternative payment methods. These changes can’t be produced on a whim and dictated on high from the ivory tower of administration. There needs to be negotiation, discussion and notice-none of which happened here with students. Administration’s handling of the situation has been brutal, but given their inability to hear the various quality of education warning bells dinging in nearly every survey released, expecting better only leads to further disappointment. At least have the goddamn common courtesy to release a campus-wide e-mail first, rather than post one line on the registrar’s website, get blasted by the Students’ Union and then send out an e-mail explaining the reasoning behind this massive change.
The money, $750,000 per year, is being directed towards entrance and graduate student scholarships, which made in any other context, should be applauded-if it sticks with that budget line and doesn’t disappear into the magic melting pot of reallocation funds. As great as scholarships are, they don’t give back to the 50 per cent of the
U of C’s population who were inconvenienced by this decision.
The time factor and lack of consultation make this an issue-unless you talk to the students. Many are concerned that they will now have to stand in the endless registrar
line instead of paying online or that they’ll have to have the cash up front for their tuition, which isn’t necessarily the case. The U of C’s “back in time” move has inconvenienced many and removed a choice that many other universities don’t have.
Confused, poor Marty McFly asked for something from the shopkeep and received a black coffee. This was not what he had in mind. Adjusting to big change (like travelling back in time or removing an important payment option) takes time, and though this one makes sense for the U of C in the long run, our overlords in administration handled the situation in a quite spectacularly awful fashion.