2019–2020 Sessional Dates Announced
The fifth Faculty Council of the academic year took place on Wednesday, February 13.
Ontario Government Tuition Cut
Dean Iacobucci discussed the impact of the Ontario government’s tuition cuts. He stated that by dropping tuition by 10 per cent and holding it flat for another year, the government was only focusing on the sticker price of higher education funding. The Dean also noted that he was apprehensive that the government would yet announce cuts to the per-student grant to the law school. This grant has not changed since 1992.
Additionally, OSAP funding cuts and changes to the definition of independence (from 4 years to 6 years after secondary school) will negatively affect students, although it is unclear by how much. The Dean criticized the government for “building the car as they drive it.”
The Dean said that the low grant-to-tuition ratio meant a major source of revenue would be reduced. The Dean has communicated the situation to University of Toronto administrators and hopes that the University will consider redistributing funds from lesser-impacted divisions to those with higher losses. He said that divisions with higher international enrolment would not be as significantly impacted as those with low international enrolment, such as Law.
Possible Solutions?
Reclassifying the law school as a graduate school?
The Dean noted that graduate programs get three times the grant per student than the JD program, but there is no conceivable way to get the government to reclassify the JD program as a graduate program.
Increasing the headcount of JD students?
Dean Iacobucci was strongly against this. He emphasized that any solution should have the smallest possible impact on the academic excellence of the law school, and one of its strengths is the small class size where everyone can really know each other. Additionally, he claimed that increasing enrolment to make any budgetary difference would mean enrolling students whose credentials were not up to the same standard as current students.
Increasing donor funding?
The Dean stated that he was very pleased with donor funding thus far but an increase would be unlikely.
What about financial aid?
The Dean remained committed to the promise that 30 cents of every dollar received from all sources would go into the financial aid pot. Since tuition fees would decrease, the contribution to financial aid would also decrease, from a total dollar perspective, with fewer dollars coming in.
SLS and GLSA Updates
Solomon McKenzie (3L), the President of the Students’ Law Society, presented an SLS update. Law Ball ticket and Law clothing sales were ongoing. Oakes Day on Thursday, February 28 will feature lunch in Rowell and various activities around the school. On the policy side, the Student Town Hall on January 31 raised concerns about the changes to tuition and OSAP, banning laptop usage in the classroom, and contingency financial planning for the potential student fees opt-outs. Furthermore, he stated that the SLS is working to provide new resources for Indigenous land acknowledgements and planning a referendum regarding some of these changes.
Bruno Lima Monteiro (SJD), President of the Graduate Law Students’ Association, announced that the GLSA is planning regular social events, including an upcoming ski trip, and a comparative law series run by SJD students regarding topics such as free speech and social media.
Sessional Dates
Associate Dean Albert Yoon gave an update regarding the sessional dates for the upcoming 2019-2020 school year. With inter-session beginning next year, the major considerations are minimizing the impact on date changes and maximizing time between the end of classes and the beginning of finals. This means pushing everything a week forward in second semester. There was also consideration given to reducing the number of deemed Mondays and the potential of changing Reading Week from the rest of the university. Naturally, one concern was that the Reading Weeks currently coincided with 1L and 2L recruitment periods.
Downtown Legal Services (DLS) Case Update
Lisa Cirillo from DLS, which is hiring 22 students this summer, presented an update of a large case that the clinic is currently working on. Craig Smith and his daughter Tiara Smith approached the clinic in Spring 2016 regarding illegal housing practices, which included discriminatory refusal of entering into a lease, landlord harassment, false allegations of missing rent payments, malicious trespass orders, and physical assault from other tenants. DLS caseworkers filed emergency motions at the Landlord and Tenant Board and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. The latter awarded the clients $60,000 in general damages, the highest ever awarded from the Tribunal in a housing case. The case is ongoing, because the landlord has not paid damages and DLS has filed further motions.
DLS is also involved with an ongoing constitutional case regarding the Safe Third Country Agreement in the refugee and immigration division.
