Budget Cuts Affect the Educational Experience

LettersLeh Deuling — Published October 14, 2014

To the Editor,

I am writing to you in regards to an article recently published on The Link’s website about austerity measures being taken at Concordia University. As a philosophy major in my third year, the article really resonated with me.

I moved to Montreal from Halifax a year ago because the cost of living and tuition was too high for me to afford an education in Halifax. I was lured by the thought of cheap rent and affordable classes. What I didn’t realize was affordable classes might also mean huge classes, with a ratio of students to professors that was far too high.

Last year I received fifteen credits from philosophy courses. In a full year I wrote three papers and was so disappointed! This year I don’t have a single paper on my syllabus for the first semester. This leaves me feeling frustrated, and also apprehensive. I have no way of knowing that I understand the material if I don’t have a chance to analyze the ideas on a piece of paper. With no feedback from a professor or teaching assistant on my analysis I am left to wait for the end of the semester to write a final exam which may or may not go well. I don’t know what kind of writing the professor expects, and I have no idea if I have interpreted ideas correctly.

I have been thinking about this a lot over the past few weeks as a struggling student trying to make ends meet, make it to class on time between working two jobs just so I can afford an education where I don’t even have a chance to show that I understand what I am supposedly learning. 

—Leh Deuling,
Philosophy Dept.