October 25 referendum to decide fate of Career Centre
By Rob Granatstein
The Career Centre will be closed and day-long line-ups for Financial Aid could become the norm if students vote ‘No’ to a new fee in the soon to be announced student services referendum.
Administration will hold a referendum on October 25, asking students to vote on paying at least $50 a year more to retain student services as they are now.
The exact fee and question have not been finalized.
“If a referendum fails we will begin, in December, to start closing services,” said Linda Grayson, Ryerson’s v-p administration.
Along with Financial Aid and the Career Centre, Ryerson student services support athletics, the Health Centre, the Access Centre and counselling.
Linda Grayson said the first service to be cut is the Career Centre, which is in the greatest jeopardy because it has been funded by an annual grant of $93,950 from the Canadian Counselling Foundation, since 1991. That grant, along with an additional $32,000 from another special fund, runs out this December.
Ryerson was supposed to pick up the funding of the centre in 1996, but fiscal restraints have made that an impossibility.
Without a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum, there would be a $125,000 shortfall in the Career Centre’s budget, forcing it to close.
Grayson predicts that a ‘No’ vote will lead to the Career Centre’s closure and up 10 to 12 hour lines for students seeking loans and OSAP money at the Financial Aid office.
With a $320,000 annual budget, The Financial Aid office already has to close one day a week to deal with its huge workload. In 1994/95, 6,000 full-time students received OSAP.
“The services many people have used, and will use, will just not be there,” said Marion Creery, Ryerson’s student services director.
More money is needed to prevent major cuts to the Access Centre, Counselling, Athletics and the Health Centre, in addition to the Career Centre and Financial Aid.
Ryerson is in a financial crisis. Student services’ operating budget was reduced by $69,213 last year, and will have to be reduced another $110,000 over the next two years.
There have also been significant cuts in federal and provincial transfer payments, forcing a further belt-tightening.
Ryerson also has a large capital debt and is running a deficit budget.
“Across the board reductions no longer work,” Grayson said. “We will have to abandon some of the services we presently offer.”
If there is a ‘No’ vote, one way to try to retain services is through user fees. For example, every time any paper work is done at Financial Aid, there would be a charge to the student.
Ryerson’s student government has voted to take a neutral stance on the referendum.
“It’s hard for me to recommend students vote ‘Yes’, because that’s telling them to spend more money,” RyeSAC president Paul Cheevers said.
“If I was a student I’d think saving the Career Centre is important and I’d probably vote Yes, but that is an expensive vote.”
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