Who's running the show at Concordia University Inc.
University cutbacks are happening because university boards include corporate representatives who actively lobby for higher tuition, argues the Concordia Students' Union (CSU). >> Universities, moreover, are accepting corporate donations for highly specified fields of education from companies who have consistently deferred paying millions in taxes. >> Aliya Haer, VP-Academic for the CSU, cites the example of Bell Telephone, which recently donated $600,000 to Concordia for a software engineering program. According to Haer, Bell owes $2 billion in deferred taxes--and if they paid up, the university wouldn't need to go begging for corporate donations. Haer says Concordia's administration won't utter a word about this state of affairs, because a representative of Bell sits on the university's board of governors. >> "The administration's favourite statement about cutbacks is, 'Our hands are tied, and we have to do this,'" says Haer. >> CSU President David Smaller notes that some other board members are bank reps. "They are mandating the executive to increase tuition so students will have to get more loans from their banks," Smaller says. >> "And these board members are supposed to be representative of 'the community at large.' I would love to see the average income of this community at large and compare it to what a real member of the community at large makes." --Jacquie Charlton
University cutbacks are happening because university boards include corporate representatives who actively lobby for higher tuition, argues the Concordia Students' Union (CSU). >> Universities, moreover, are accepting corporate donations for highly specified fields of education from companies who have consistently deferred paying millions in taxes. >> Aliya Haer, VP-Academic for the CSU, cites the example of Bell Telephone, which recently donated $600,000 to Concordia for a software engineering program. According to Haer, Bell owes $2 billion in deferred taxes--and if they paid up, the university wouldn't need to go begging for corporate donations. Haer says Concordia's administration won't utter a word about this state of affairs, because a representative of Bell sits on the university's board of governors. >> "The administration's favourite statement about cutbacks is, 'Our hands are tied, and we have to do this,'" says Haer. >> CSU President David Smaller notes that some other board members are bank reps. "They are mandating the executive to increase tuition so students will have to get more loans from their banks," Smaller says. >> "And these board members are supposed to be representative of 'the community at large.' I would love to see the average income of this community at large and compare it to what a real member of the community at large makes." --Jacquie Charlton