Montreal, June 18, 2009 - Students protested outside the Concordia Board of Governors’ meeting today at 7.30am where the Board approved a fee increase for International students in the John Molson School of Business and the Engineering and Computer Science faculty.

This, the Concordia Student Union and Graduate Student Association believe, is unacceptable. The CSU President, Mr. Amine Dabchy hand delivered signed letters opposing the increase from executives of the other faculties.

"The sad consequence of this fee increase is that many International students will be turned away,” said Dabchy after the outcome of the vote. “We will be facing a situation of inevitable decrease in enrollment and Concordia will lose in its diversity”.

A graduate student councilor, Mr. Erik Chevrier, recommended that “the government re-invest in education instead of the university charging more money for tuition from students who are bearing the brunt of the current economic crisis.”

According to MBA student Xiang Zhou, “Although I am a student, I still undergo the economic crisis indirectly. My sole partner of the statistics class project stopped her program due to the economic crisis. In her email to me last month, she told me she has dropped out of the program until fall as her work is not giving her any time for studies. She said she is ‘working 7 days a week, because of the financial crisis, and all I have energy for at night is sleep.’”

Both the CSU and GSA voted to oppose the increase at the board meeting. Students from universities across Montreal, including from Université de Montréal and McGill University, also attended the protest in support of the Concordia students.

For further information:

Prince Ralph Osei, CSU Vice-President Services, (514) 562-6791, serv...@csu.qc.ca

Erik Chevrier, GSA Councillor (514) 998-5889