According to a University of Calgary Student Union survey, over 90 per cent of students are concerned about tuition hikes. In less than five years, students at the UofC experienced a 37 per cent increase in the cost of education. The UofC hand-waved away the issue, declaring students simply apply for scholarships and bursaries to cover the increased cost. Under capitalism, there is no room for debate when it comes to squeezing every single cent out of working-class people. For example, our university is using our tuition to fund the same genocide that we are seeing before our eyes.
The UofC considers itself a proud partner of RTX (formerly Raytheon), one of the largest weapons manufacturers in the world. In 2015, RTX sold $1.9 billion worth of guided missiles to the Israeli state. Just the year before (2014), Israel conducted “Operation Protective Edge,” a massacre that killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, more than 500 of which were children. The yniversity administration gladly invites war profiteers onto campus and indulges in the profits. In 2022, the university and RTX jointly opened a cybersecurity centre, using an undisclosed amount of tuition to front the cost of construction and maintenance.
In every way possible, the university chooses its interests above anything else. Encampments are brutally smothered. Students work multiple jobs and skip meals, while the university throws our tuition money freely at warmongers like the U.S. Air Force, NATO, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. The students must decide how the campus is run. The only way forward is a student strike!
