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I went to pick up a book from the library today and found, much to my dismay, that the library had been temporarily shut down because of something to do with student protesters. (My French reading skills lack any ability with nuance.) Since people we're saying it was for the rest of the day, I just turned around and got back on the Metro to come home.
According to the Montreal Gazette student strikers are protesting a tuition hike of... wait for it... 100 dollars. Seriously? As part of the strike, protesters wanted to stage a sit-in at the Grande Bibliothèque, hence the closure. Maybe it's just me, but that's just absurd. First off, you can strike from school? I thought there was another name for that? Oh, right. Cutting class. (I wish I would've done so this morning, but that's a different story. As much as I don't enjoy my classes, I'm glad that McGill students are basically staying out of this. I don't care to be on strike, thanks.)
From what I've read, CEGEP and University tuition in Quebec has been frozen for the past decade, so they haven't had an increase recently. Perhaps it's simply a matter of perspective, but a 100 dollar increase after ten years seems pretty reasonable--it's probably not even keeping up with inflation. Also, it's not as if the tuition is that expensive to begin with; that's part of the reason I'm here. Even state universities in the US are much, much more expensive, and many have tuition or fee increases ever year. Do Quebec students seriously not understand how good they've got it here? I think they should go back to class and pay the 100 bucks. It's really not a huge deal.
According to the Montreal Gazette student strikers are protesting a tuition hike of... wait for it... 100 dollars. Seriously? As part of the strike, protesters wanted to stage a sit-in at the Grande Bibliothèque, hence the closure. Maybe it's just me, but that's just absurd. First off, you can strike from school? I thought there was another name for that? Oh, right. Cutting class. (I wish I would've done so this morning, but that's a different story. As much as I don't enjoy my classes, I'm glad that McGill students are basically staying out of this. I don't care to be on strike, thanks.)
From what I've read, CEGEP and University tuition in Quebec has been frozen for the past decade, so they haven't had an increase recently. Perhaps it's simply a matter of perspective, but a 100 dollar increase after ten years seems pretty reasonable--it's probably not even keeping up with inflation. Also, it's not as if the tuition is that expensive to begin with; that's part of the reason I'm here. Even state universities in the US are much, much more expensive, and many have tuition or fee increases ever year. Do Quebec students seriously not understand how good they've got it here? I think they should go back to class and pay the 100 bucks. It's really not a huge deal.
