Official document can be found here
“On June 15th, 2020, UNB announced which courses would be held in person, and which courses would be held via alternative delivery. The UNB Student Union strongly believes that this announcement, along with other announcements made throughout June, has clearly demonstrated the lack of consideration for students in the upcoming fall semester.
On June 1st UNB provided students with vague details pertaining to the fall semester, including the announcement of a “blended” model for class delivery. Our students were anxious waiting to hear from this June 1st announcement, and were let down immensely by the insufficient and unhelpful information we were given. Following this, on June 3rd a town hall was held to give the UNB community a chance to ask questions in an attempt to resolve some of the uncertainties our community was left with. Any questions that did not get answered were posted online at a later date with answers. We feel that while the overall purpose of the town hall was positive, some of the responses students received from UNB administration were worrisome.
As of June 15th, the university officially released the updated course timetable course delivery methods. As per the town hall, The University of New Brunswick stated that in-person class priority would be given to faculties in the STEM fields. In response to this, the Student Union looked through all courses being offered in the fall and what percentage of classes will be offered in person. We had grouped classes that are in different sections to guarantee we did not record a class twice. If a class had a lab portion, we separated the class and the lab into their respective categories. With this being said, we see that a low volume of students will be participating in in-person classes and labs. We found that for lectures, only 7%-8% of classes are happening in person, and that for labs, 23%-24% are taking place in person.
As students, we know that a hands on, in person lab, can not be replaced by an online delivery method and still provide the same quality of education. In addition, online classes do not provide students with the same level of engagement and may not allow all students to actively participate in classes due to technological barriers. We feel that there were many courses that could have happened in person, but aren’t because the university is setting much stricter standards than required by public health.
The Student Union would also recommend that UNB remove parking passes for the fall semester. Students only saw a refund in the winter 2020 semester for their parking passes if they had a twelve or ten month parking pass, not those with an eight, four, or one month pass. Unless the university is prepared to issue partial to full refunds in the event that classes need to fully move online, parking passes should not be sold this fall.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of New Brunswicks’ Board of Governors approved a 2% increase to tuition for all undergraduates and research based graduate students. We believe that not only should the 2% increase be reversed, but that the university lower tuition as well as remove fees where they are not being used by students. UNB Financial Services describes that tuition fees cover the cost of instruction, regular examination, university libraries, creative arts, and varsity/ campus athletics. We believe that with the lowered quality of education that this blended model brings, the cancellation of most or all athletic competitions, as well as the reduced access to the libraries, students should not be paying full tuition. We also believe that fees such as the facility access fee and the technology fee (among others) should be reassessed as we approach the fall.
We understand that the University of New Brunswick will be impacted financially by the current global pandemic, however, it is not the students’ responsibility to make up those financial losses”