Increasing tuition fees and student debt loads is the topic of a student-organized event at Vancouver Island University’s Nanaimo campus Wednesday.
The VIU Students’ Union is joining student groups across the country organizing events for the Canadian Federation of Students’s National Day of Action.
A Campus Carnival that includes interactive booths and a soup kitchen will take place at the students’ union building.
“The purpose is to bring awareness that education has become far less affordable,” said Steve Beasley, students’ union executive director. “The income of your family should not be the determining factor of whether or not you go to school. In B.C., a lot of the focus is on student debt because we have the highest interest rates on student loans across the province.”
Between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., the union will serve out bowls of soup and students can participate in a number of different activities related to the topic of education affordability, including spinning the Wheel of Debt, getting a picture taken with their debt “sentence”, and a take action booth, where people can write letters to local, provincial and federal politicians.
“The goal of these types of events is to make education a vote-determining issue,” said Beasley.
While the event is meant to raise awareness amongst the student body, he said anyone is welcome to come up and check out the day’s activities.
