Re: College said a good deal

Brett Reynolds of Caledon, writes that he feels a college education in Ontario is dirt cheap. I don't know what college or program he attended, but I suspect his education is not recent.

I am currently enrolled as a full-time student at Georgian College. My tuition is currently $1,424.00 per semester. There are three semester per year making my tuition $4,272.00 per year. This dollar figure does not include books or other supplies demanded for my program. The average cost per semester for books/supplies is $700.00.

Mr. Reynolds writes that all teachers hold office hours (my instructors offer 2 hours per week) for one-on-one time with students and yes, many will respond to emails on the same day. As far as marking and preparation time spent? My courses do not have tests or assignments on a weekly basis. For the most part there have been two essays per course and one-two tests per course. These are generously spread over the semester, so no one teacher has to mark tests or assignments on a weekly basis. It is in the teachers contract that they work a maximum of 14 hours per week in class. Add the 2 hours per week in office and the three times per semester they mark work at home and the average weekly hours comes to 30. The average wage for college teachers is 60-90 thousand dollars per year. I have many friends who earn approximately the same as college facilitators, they would love an average work week of 30 hours.

Mr. Reynolds also seems to be under the impression that college facilitators have advanced degrees, again, I doubt Mr. Reynolds has attended college recently. Throughout the course of my education the bulk of my instructors are registered nurses who themselves only graduated from college. I have one instructor who is completing a bachelors degree in nursing and one instructor who is completing a masters degree in nursing. That's 2 out of 16 teachers that actually have advance degrees.

Mr. Reynolds seems to think that as students, we have the "run of they gym", the library, internet and other services. As a student, I pay through my tuition, $150.00 per semester for the gym and athletic programs. If I want to use the gym, I must then pay an additional fee. I also get to pay a "student success fee", graduation fee and a number of fees for services, which I do not use. As far as the library and internet services, I suggest Mr. Reynolds visits a college or university library, he would most certainly wonder, where are all the books? Internet service is provided in exchange for books. Ask any librarian, the internet is much cheaper than buying books. Our public library in Orangeville has ten times the number of books that Georgian College has at the main campus in Barrie.

I am a mature student (age 44 years) and I am supporting Georgian College not only with my tuition dollars, but I have also supported universities and colleges over the last 25 years of my working career with my tax dollars. Both colleges and universities are well funded by provincial and federal governments. I understand that the facilitators in Ontario's colleges want to offer quality education and recognize there are problems with the current system. I agree with them completely. However, cutting classroom sizes in half while maintaining high salaries, is simply not possible. Would the facilitators be willing to give up half their wage for half the classroom size? I think not. The infrastructure required to do so is not in place and will not be in place for a long time.

In the meantime, it will be the students who pay the price for this ongoing dilemma. Every two to three years there will be a strike by facilitators, which will prevent the students from getting the quality education that they have paid for.

Terry Wernath Georgian College

Student