As students, we ask for an excellent education. We ask to be supported by our university. We did not ask for UBC to become a “university town.” We did not ask for UBC to fight its way up an arbitrary rankings list. We did not ask UBC to become a “Place of Mind.”
But the administration never asks what we want UBC to be.
“Whose Campus?” is a five-part series detailing just how far UBC has strayed from being a university that treats students with the respect we deserve.
Part 1 | Between naiveté and arrogance: tuition hikes at UBC
UBC sees tuition as an enabler of “excellence.” Yet they admittedly have no definition of the term. Instead they insist that the stature of the institution can only increase with tuition hikes – despite not knowing what they’ll be spending the increased revenue on. Even less, apparently, do they consider the side-effects the hikes will have on their students of today and tomorrow.
Part 2 | Sold to the highest bidder: international students at UBC
Since UBC started charging international students higher tuition until 1997, they've followed a crude market-based logic to a tee. "Dig a little deeper," one administrator advised prospective students.
Part 3 | Seen as schoolchildren: barriers to campus fun
UBC's assumption that students are irresponsible and can't be trusted to host social events creates a culture of disconnect on campus.
Part 4 | Company town: how campus became commercial
The shift in Canadian government during the 1980s encouraged public-private partnerships and reduced subsidies for higher education, leading UBC down the road of private development and robbing students’ of their voice on campus.
Part 5 | All BoGged down: tuition without representation
UBC's highest governing body is secretive and all-powerful. That's a problem.