Since COVID-19 has made it impossible for student governments to host any in-person events, many of you may be wondering: “Where are my student fees going this year?”. As the Vice-President Finance of the Innis College Student Society, I will offer an accurate and detailed breakdown of the student fees that you are paying.

In this article, I will discuss the student fees collected by the Innis College Student Society (ICSS) and the Innis Residence Council (IRC). I have also had the pleasure of interviewing the Vice-President Finance of the IRC, Emil Stoynov, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Innis Herald, Anna Pan, regarding their thoughts and plans for this year.

Traditionally, the fees collected by the ICSS are made up of three different parts: the general student fees paid to the ICSS and its clubs ($27.03), the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) Student Refugee Program ($7), and the Innis College Building Expansion ($5), adding up to a total of $39.03 per semester. 

Back in March, campus was shut down due to COVID⁠–⁠19. Halfway through the summer semester, all student governments were asked to consider reducing their student fees for the upcoming 2020⁠–⁠2021 school year. Given the decent amount of saving we had from previous years, the executive team of the ICSS made a decision to reduce our Fall Semester fees by 50%. Of the three aforementioned fee components, we could only reduce the fees charged for the ICSS and its clubs ($27.03) as the executive team. Therefore, after a 50% reduction of the Fall Semester general ICSS and clubs fees, each student paid a total fee of $25.51 for the Fall Semester.

In preparing for the October hard budget meeting, we asked all directors and representatives to plan alternative virtual events for both semesters. This shift resulted in a significant decrease in our budget compared to previous years when we could host in-person events. After careful consideration and deliberation with the members of the ICSS, we decided to reduce our Winter Semester fees by 75%, which means that each student will be charged a total of $18.76 for the Winter Semester. In sum, this adds up to $57.79 per student for the entire 2020–2021 school year.

In addition to the ICSS fees, I have also interviewed the Vice President Finance of the IRC, Emil Stoynov, regarding the student fees collected by the IRC.

Tony Niu: Could you please give me an overview of the IRC fees before the pandemic (i.e. the 2019 – 2020 fiscal year), as well as an overview of the IRC fees this fiscal year? What is the percentage of the fee reduction, if it’s reduced this year? 

Emil Stoynov: The IRC charges each resident $30.57 per semester. The pandemic did not change this number. Since our income is based on the number of people living in residence, and we are at less than half occupancy this year compared to normal years, our income is significantly less this year relative to past years.

TN: What challenges did the IRC executive team face when much fewer students are living in residence this year compared to previous years? What are some of the strategies the IRC implemented this year to reflect this change? (i.e. events, services, etc.)

ES: Due to the pandemic, we have decided to move our events entirely online for the school year with concern for everyone’s safety being our number one priority. Because everything is online this year, our costs of operation are actually less than what they would be if we were operating in person like in previous years. Unfortunately, with fewer students living in residence this year compared to previous years, the IRC has that much fewer people to reach out to. But on the upside, with fewer people, the community at the Innis residence has become that much more close-knit. Our events being online this year isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however. Most online events this year will be more accessible to the residents of Innis as they will not be obliged to stay for the entire event and can stay for however long they want! To make our events even more accessible, the IRC has decided to advertise their events on the Innis college discord server! If you’re at Innis College, I highly recommend joining the server! Residents will get pinged each time an event is about to start in case they weren’t informed of it happening so they can always drop in if they want to!

As mentioned above, the fee reduction also affects the clubs under the ICSS, which includes clubs such as the Innis Herald and the Cinema Studies Student Union (CINSSU). Therefore, I decided to interview one of my friends, Anna Pan, who is the Editor-in-Chief of the Innis Herald, on her thoughts and plans for the Innis Herald this year.

Tony Niu: Due to COVID-19 restrictions and online classes this year, the ICSS has decided to decrease student fees for both semesters. As the Editor-in-Chief of the Innis Herald, what challenges did you and your team face, and what strategies/approaches have you and your team implemented in order to work with smaller funds this year? 

Anna Pan: The Innis Herald prides itself on its history, within which printed distribution has always played a central role. For example, we have a tradition of reviewing the physical archives at the end of each year to celebrate adding our newest issues to the annals. With COVID-19 and all the fee cuts, it became apparent that printing was no longer a viable option. We had to pivot completely online in order to better reach our audience and cut printing costs, which were the bulk of our budget.

TN: Could you discuss the advantages and disadvantages of publishing issues completely online compared to both online and distributing physical copies in previous years? If school goes back to normal in the future, would you consider distributing physical copies again? Why or why not?

AP: The online medium definitely lends itself to faster and broader distribution. Through our social media, we can easily share past and current articles to a much wider audience than before. Beyond sharing articles, we can grow our audience base and receive feedback on our content via social media engagement. Moreover, without the restriction of printing costs, we can now design more visually stimulating issues. Not to mention, complete digital publishing is also more environmentally friendly. The downside is of course the loss of tradition, which is something that deeply saddens me. In the future, I think The Innis Herald will continue along the fully virtual trajectory, but perhaps we will print a few issues each year for archival purposes to keep traditions alive.

Despite all the hardships student governments and clubs had to work through this year— and that includes all the difficulties that come with virtual programming in addition to the limitation of reduced funds—all the student leaders are making huge efforts to engage with the community. Whether it is through an online cooking contest (IN the Kitchen Cook-Off!), E-Sport tournaments (Innis Esports World Cup), sustainability awareness discussions (Innis Green Talks), or career-centric workshops (Innis Grads go to CLNx: CV and Personal Statement Camp), these refreshing new ideas are the reasons why YOU should consider participating and getting involved wherever you are. The ICSS is still trying to actively foster a sense of community through online virtual events, following the amazing work done by the Orientation team. You can find out more about our programming on our social media platforms (Facebook: Innis College Student Society – ICSS, Instagram: @innisicss). We hope to see more Innisians at our future events!