Post-secondary faculty and students team up to fight cuts
Posted Jan 30, 2021 9:00 am.
Last Updated Jan 29, 2021 2:26 pm.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) – Students and staff at Mount Royal University will be protesting against cuts to post-secondary institutions Saturday afternoon.
MRU students and staff will be a part of the province-wide rally calling on the UCP government to reverse the cuts.
Lee Easton with the MRU Faculty Association says it won’t be like some of the protests Calgary is used to.
“(It’s) a car rally, actually a honk-a-thon, where we are coming together with faculty, students, and staff to defend Alberta’s post-secondary education system which has been facing drastic cuts.”
He adds over the past few years there has been roughly a 20 per cent cut to operating grants.
“Which are leading to tuition increases, we are having layoffs to support staff, and, in fact, we are increasingly relying on contract faculty who are precarious in their employment.”
Rachel Timmermans with the MRU Students Association says there will also be a sign campaign that might remind Albertans of another push against the provincial government.
“A groundswell, similar to what we saw for the Alberta Parks campaign because we know just a few student leaders raising these issues isn’t going to make a difference.”
The rally will be at 1 p.m at the Minister of Advanced Education’s constituency office and will be a drive-by picketing with only a few people on the sidewalk.
