Squeezing the stone
Remember all that noise, last spring? The beating of pots and pans? Cue “It’s all coming back to me now”. Anyhow, the student tuition freeze was maintained, on the principle that you could only squeeze the stone so far… or something like that.
Universities in the province were ordered to make do with the same (that being the real significance of the tuition freeze). And they tried. Really, really hard. Like a stone. And so the summer passed. And on through football season. And into winter.
Now, the government was so impressed with the calming effect of freezing tuition (and stopping the squeeze of the student stone) that they decided to try, one more time. The paper this morning announced that the government is going to further reduce university budgets by an arbitrary 5%. A tiny squeeze. Just a pinch, actually. And the university administrators are not pleased. For, unlike the government, they will have to find the additional reductions.
I guess the minister responsible believes in trickle down squeezing. And universities, already under-financed, will be more so.
However, as the one hand squeezed the stone, the other poured calming oils into the pocketbook of a former politician. Without naming names, someone who once wanted to be premier will now pick up a posh job in a neighbouring country (think ambassadorship, for the non-state) along with a deputy ministership, along with guaranteed job security and two pension plans. After all, now that the education sector is doing its part, such largesse is painless.
