Students on 2 coasts protest MUN funding cuts, increased fees and decreased maintenance

Students at Memorial University's St. John's campus protested for lower tuition fees and a higher emphasis on fixing infrastructure. (Jessica Singer/CBC)

University students on two Newfoundland coasts protested in unity on Wednesday to demand funding cuts at Memorial University be reversed by the Newfoundland and Labrador government.

In St. John's, students gathered to voice anger over the state of the buildings on the main campus. Memorial University's student union says the school's tunnels have multiple broken safety alarms and accessibility elevators, leaky roofs, and signs that warn of asbestos.

"You don't feel safe in those tunnels," Gabe Jeans, a fourth-year student, told CBC News. He believes the infrastructure issue has only gotten worse since he began his time at MUN.

"We need the funding, so that we can actually be the prestigious university that we claim we are. The administration claim that we have to have high tuition so that we can be a prestigious university, but you look around the university and there is no prestige," he said.

"It is not being allocated to the students or our infrastructure," he said.

Calls to reallocate funding come three years after the Newfoundland and Labrador government scrapped a 22-year-long freeze on tuition fees, and moved to significantly hike fees for incoming students. Students who were enrolled or began at the university by the fall of 2021 were unaffected by the hike, but tuition for other students will continue to rise by four per cent a year until 2026.

Fourth-year student Gabe Jeans, left, says the university's infrastructure has only gotten worse in his time at MUN. (Jessica Singer/CBC)

Student and faculty leaders launched what they call the FundMUN campaign in September, calling on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to halt cuts and restore funding.

During an interview in September, Premier Andrew Furey told reporters funding wasn't cut, but "displaced."

Meanwhile, Newfoundland and Labrador's auditor general is conducting an audit of the university's facility management efforts and how it effectively manages its capital portfolio, according the office's website.

Tuition hikes make school in N.L. 'unaffordable', student says

On the west coast, students at Corner Brook's Grenfell campus also protested Wednesday to demand the tuition freeze be reinstated to make education more accessible for all.

"Skyrocketing tuition fees are not a joke. Students are struggling, and we need them to understand this," Hadiza Bello, the Grenfell campus student union president, told CBC News.

"Students need an education to better themselves, and they're making it very difficult for people to achieve this … It's all about sustainability and accessibility, and they're failing at every one of those things in regards to students and their families."

Hadiza Bello is the president of the Grenfell campus student union. She says the province needs to reinstate its tuition fee freeze and make education more accessible. (Colleen Connors/CBC)

Kera Leights-Rose, a fourth-year student on campus, told CBC her family pays two different tuition rates, for herself and her brother, because of when the freeze was lifted.

"It makes it unaffordable to be here, and unaffordable to stay in Newfoundland. Like, students used to choose to stay here because, you know, they offered cheaper education. But now, it's basically on the same level as everywhere else," she said.

Students said they want the provincial government to re-evaluate its policies around funding at MUN, and hope the university's administration will support students in calling for the tuition freeze to be reinstated.

In an emailed statement to CBC, the province's Department of Education highlighted a series of investments to support the university in the provincial budget and said government will continue to take action to support accessible post-secondary education.

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