Issue date: 3/26/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Joshua Freedman Can students juggle a full course load and extracurriculars? The Faculty of Arts and Sciences thinks they can

Can you take a full course load and still get involved on campus? That's the question many are asking, in the wake of a strong recommendation that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) move to a fixed-fee system that would see students paying for five courses whether they take three, four, five, or even six classes.

A recent report by a "Program Fee Working Group," struck by the Interim Dean of Arts and Sciences Meric Gertler, proposed that FAS do away with per-course charges. Instead, it would adopt a yearly price "equivalent to five times the per-course fee" to be "applied to all full-time students (3.0 FCE and greater) starting [their studies] in Fall, 2009."

The document projected that the shift would garner FAS "an additional $10M in base funding" and result in "course intensification," as students enrolled in more classes to get the most out of their program fee.

Colum Grove-White, President of the Arts and Science Students' Union, called the recommendation a "band-aid solution" to an estimated "$9 million structural deficit" caused chiefly by the recession.

He claimed that the change is being "pushed through" UofT's various levels of government without proper student and staff consultation, and that ASSU is "trying to stop it from happening."

Tam Siwak, a four-class student who plays two Varsity and two intramural sports, said "if I took the five courses I would definitely have to give up a lot of my involvement. It takes a lot of time up as it is, but if I added more courses I would be really suffering."

Her concern runs counter to the report, which says "it was discussed that intensification may result in some students reducing participation in extracurricular activities though there is no evidence, from any of the other UofT divisions with a program fee or from other institutions, to substantiate this... Indeed, given our performance on measures of student engagement, one might suggest course intensification would have little to no impact or perhaps even have modest benefits."

"The faculty has had no research into the tangential impact," said Grove-White. "People take three courses for a reason."

Continued...

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