Dean claims tuition cut will disproportionately adversely impact law school; alcohol, weed the drugs of choice
The first Faculty Council meeting of 2019 took place on Wednesday, January 16.
Ontario Government Tuition Cut
Dean Iacobucci briefly discussed the proposed tuition cuts from the Ontario Government. He asserted that a 10% cut to tuition would disproportionately impact the law school as compared to other faculties, since the law school’s grant from the central university budget is inadequate.
The Dean speculated that professional programs that are entirely self-funded—such as Rotman’s executive MBA—may be exempted, but any program that requires a grant would likely be subject to the cut. He noted that the law school’s tuition is regulated and, therefore, ultimately subject to governmental fiat.
[Editor’s note: The cuts had been leaked the day before the meeting, but have since been made official. Tuition for college and universities, including law schools, will be cut by 10% next year and remain frozen for two years.]
SLS and GLSA Update
Solomon McKenzie (3L), the President of the Students’ Law Society, presented a brief update on behalf of the SLS. He said that the SLS offered support for students throughout the December exam period and will be providing support for the 1L recruit. On the social side, McKenzie said that planning for Law Ball is well underway, and that the first Call to the Bar saw more than 200 students in attendance. The SLS is planning Oakes Day, in honour of the day the R v Oakes, [1986] 1 SCR 103, was decided, with a variety of punny, Oakes-related activities, such as the pressing and substantial breakfast.
Jean-Christophe Bedard-Rubin, the Vice-President of the Graduate Law Students’ Society, recapped some recent events the GLSA hosted, such as a recent workshop with graduate students, and upcoming events, such as the ping pong tournament.
2018 Health and Wellness Survey
Yukimi Henry, the law school’s Manager of Academic/Personal Counselling and Wellness, discussed the results of the Health and Wellness Survey. The Mental Health Committee sent out the survey in an effort to take a more responsive and evidence-based approach to health and wellness issues.
Overall, 45% of the entire law school student body participated in the survey and 50% of JD students responded. The sample was representative of U of T Law’s student body as a whole regarding sex, race, and year of study.
Before beginning her presentation, Henry stressed that the results were merely diagnostic screening tools and that the data cannot be taken as indicative. Further, Henry did not present the underlying data. Rather, the data were compared to a 2016 study by Organ, et al., titled “Suffering in Silence,” of 15 law schools and over 11,000 students in America, and the Canadian undergraduate population.
Henry reported that U of T Law students had thoughts of self-harm and suicidality at rates on par with the Canadian undergrad population but at nearly twice the rate of US comparables. The rate of problematic alcohol consumption by students at U of T Law was slightly higher than US comparables and significantly higher than Canadian undergraduates. However, street drug use was significantly higher than US comparables. Yukimi acknowledged that this may be attributable to the more punitive drug regime in the US. The two most common drugs used by U of T students were marijuana and cocaine, although Henry noted that marijuana use was much more common than cocaine use. The most common recreationally-used prescription drugs were pain medications and ADHD medications and the usage rates were considerably higher than US comparables or Canadian undergraduates. When asked what “pain meds” meant, Henry responded that the Committee did not survey for specific medications, but she suspected it meant “a whole lot of opioids.”
In the last part of the presentation, Henry discussed health-seeking behaviours and attitudes of students. Overall, the Mental Health and Wellness Committee found that respondents were very forthcoming about their mental health and substance use—a major positive as the stigma surrounding these issues is often the greatest barrier to service access. One-third of respondents answered that they would seek help from a mental health professional for a mental health issue and one-fifth for substance use problems. The most common barriers to seeking help were “not having the time,” the belief that one can/should deal with this on their own, and self-efficacy.
From the survey’s results, the Dean’s Mental Health Advisory committee planned on exploring the next steps in systematic responses and enhancing the ongoing provision of mental health supports.
