In November OUSA came together for its annual Lobby Conference and one of the priorities we advocated for was targeting funding for ancillary student services. Ancillary services are the crucial student supports at universities that often are the first places to feel budget tightening. Services like mental health resource centres, learning commons, career guidance, Aboriginal student centres, and services for students with disabilities are very important to student success, but often overlooked.
These services are important to students and we can’t afford not to support them. When students drop out of university, it represents both wasted student potential and taxpayer dollars. Student support services, however, are a proven way to raise retention and graduation rates. Unfortunately, too often, these services are not a priority for administrations when making budgetary decisions, and students lack sufficient representation on governing bodies to do anything about it.
It’s not always that ancillary services are having their budgets cut, but they are not increasing to meet student demand. Members of Steering Committee can all share stories of how their ancillary services are so under-resourced that students who book an appointment in November aren’t seen until March. This is unacceptable for students in need.
We need to support these services. While some universities’ student bodies have voted to compensate for budget cuts with increased ancillary fees, this shouldn’t be the sole responsibility of students. Students already do a lot to raise awareness about mental health issues, or to promote tutoring services and learning strategies, but at the end of the day these services need targeted funding from the government to ensure adequate support.
OUSA suggested in the pre-Budget consultations an allocation of $25 million worth of new funding to a new special purpose operating grant to fund improvements to support services. This grant would be available to institutions through a matching program that contributes one provincial dollar for every additional dollar of institutional funding directed to new support initiatives. This would do much to improve these services and demonstrate the government’s commitment to student success at the post-secondary level.
Our universities cannot afford to turn students away from ancillary services. Ancillary services need targeted funding so they can provide for the student need that often grows in silence. The government needs to direct funding to these resource centres so they can hire new staff, increase their capacity, and meet student demand. They should always be ahead of the curve, not lagging behind.
-Kieran Slobodin
Academic Affairs Commissioner
The Alma Mater Society, Queen’s University
