FOUNDATION UPDATE

Tuitions On the Rise

______________________________ BY DENNIS BROOKS, P.ENG., P.GEOPH. Education Foundation Columnist _______________________________

It is not always easy to find a theme or common thread to make my article coherent and interesting, but often a newspaper article rescues me. One that caught my eye about a month ago was in the Edmonton Journal, and it’s about a subject very important to the foundation.

Under the headline Alberta’s Tuition Fees Going up: Others Stay Put, it says that in Alberta, students faced an average increase of 6.5 per cent this fall, one of the highest in the country. There is a political element to this about how universities manage under government funding constraints; I’ll dodge that bullet and just highlight the message that it continues to be increasingly difficult for our students to finance their education.

The situation underlines that the work to date of your APEGGA Education Foundation makes a difference — and that there is a lot more we can do.

So, what exactly are we currently doing?

A letter seeking contributions from “grandfathered” life members (ones not required to pay annual fees) went out in September. This was delayed a bit from the date given in my prior article so that it would appear more timely to those members. The last time this was done, about two years ago, we had a very generous response, and we hope life members do the same, this time.

Millennium Scholarships Awarded
The APEGGA Education Foundation Board met on Sept. 28. One important action was to award three Millennium Scholarships — in addition to the two awards listed in the terms of reference. The board was exercising its prerogative to award up to four additional ones when candidates chosen are equally deserving.

Names of scholarship winners will appear in the January edition of The PEGG.

The board continues to work on the terms of reference for the new Centennial Scholarships and to consider the merits of a credit card affinity program.

The board approved a $500 donation in support of APEGGA’s Outreach Program for printing costs. One of that program’s activities is the annual Excellence in Education celebration evenings in both Calgary and Edmonton. These evenings are open to award recipients and their families and friends, and will have taken place by the time you get this issue.

The board is also looking at ways to gain greater visibility in order to promote our aims to members.

From the donation data in the table in this column, you can see that your continuing support should give us another good year. Thanks for that.

Date Voluntary Donations Summit Awards Revenue