Financial insecurity was an issue before the pandemic for post-secondary students and now they are especially vulnerable.
Many don’t qualify for emergency government programs or Employment Insurance and their part-time jobs and summer employment have vanished with all the closures.
President of the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union, Regan Ratt-Misponas, says that’s why they have sent a letter to the university with some requests.
They include no tuition increase for the next academic year, extending tuition deadlines and waiving late payment fees for the spring, summer and fall terms, reimbursing students for forced withdrawals of classes they could have otherwise completed before the university closed and having the pass/fail option, which many colleges and universities have implemented.
Ratt-Misponas says students shouldn’t face academic or financial penalties due to these difficult times.

This is the final month for the current USSU executive. The new executive under the leadership of president Autumn LaRose-Smith begins May 1st.