The SFU Community Coalition found it unsurprising that Murray Coell did not follow up with the meeting we requested after the petition delivery. Nor did he address the petition, signed by over 1000 SFU community members (which we delivered to his constituency office and Parliament in Victoria), in Legislature. Students from UVic had also been there the day before us with their own petition.
This behaviour is indicative of the ‘real concern’ that the Liberals have for postsecondary education. That is, their greedy neoliberal agenda doesn’t have time for students.
But we’re not the only groups he’s ignoring. UBC has started to feel the brunt of this “Labour Market” approach to postsecondary eduction:
The Alma Mater Society at UBC Vancouver (AMS) recently tried to arrange a meeting with Coell to discuss the freeze on StudentAidBC, as well as other matters pertaining to postsecondary education, but Coell refused.
He said he was “too busy” dealing with election stuff for the upcoming provincial election. … What an attitude … what a reply… I wonder how “busy” he will be after he loses the next election?
Murray Coell: Minister of Advanced Education and the Labour Market, who is "too busy" to address the concerns of the students and faculty of BC universities.
photo source: bc.net
