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With a Grammy category dedicated solely to musical theatre, it’s safe to say that Broadway is largely defined by how good the music is. So when I heard that Broadway actor-turned-stage-director Michael Arden is taking Spring Awakening, a musical near and dear to my heart, and reinventing it with American Sign Language, my first thought was: how?

Spring Awakening is, in the barest of definitions, a coming-of-age story. It’s a rock musical that I, in my first time listening to it, thought to be more messed up and more tragic than it could have been. The musical is set in late 19th-century Germany, and follows a group of teenagers as they discover their own sexualities while faced with adults determined to prevent them from exploring their own lives and bodies. When the play which this musical was based on was first released, it was censored for its unashamed and blunt portrayal of issues such asrape, abortion, the queer identity, child abuse and suicide. Looking back at it now and seeing it in a new light, Spring Awakening is neither messed up nor tragic for the heck of it. It’s not even didactic in the way people seem to assume it is. It’s a musical that’s nothing if not honest and personal, and under Michael Arden’s careful hand, it comes alive again with a newfound intimacy and an intense poignancy.

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The musical opened last 2006, with Glee’s Lea Michele and now Broadway vet Jonathan Groff starring as the show’s main pair, and proceeded to sweep that season’s Tony Awards. Last July 2015, Arden spearheaded the first Broadway revival of Spring Awakening by moving it from its home at the Deaf West Theatre and into New York’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre. With him came a cast of both non-hearing and hearing actors and a show presented simultaneously in spoken English, sung songs and choreographed ASL. The result is another take at Spring Awakening, yes, but with double the passion the 2006 production had and with the content even more hard-hitting than before.

Deaf characters are introduced into the story this time around, and for a musical where communication is a key theme, it opens up the show for a different kind of in-depth exploration. It cuts open the musical everyone had gotten to know and love, and bares its bones not just to the audience but especially to the musical theatre community. ASL is a constant part of the choreography for Spring Awakening, and each actor uses ASL, whether or not they’re singing, speaking or signing. The spotlight is on the deaf actors for majority of the production, all of whom are accompanied by separate actors doing the singing and speaking off-stage. The entire cast works together to make Spring Awakening what it is, may it be teaching the hearing cast members ASL or working their way around with non-verbal cues between songs, and the effect is a musical that is enchanting in its own right, with or without the music.

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It’s not often that ASL and deaf culture is acknowledged in its entirety as a limitless world in itself, and surely not in a community where music is such a defining factor. It’s rare enough that the entertainment world sincerely and earnestly depicts different cultures and languages co-existing in one storyline. Spring Awakening subverts the idea that musical theatre is strictly for the musically inclined, and reminds the world that music or not, there’s always a story to be found and acknowledged, no matter how personal or intimate.

As the characters wrestle with sexuality and growing up, the Deaf West Theatre’s production drives home the idea that sexuality, especially for those coming of age, is something universal, something that needs to be talked about and shared instead of swept under the rug. With the help of its mixed cast and the poignancy already present in the show, this revival unifies multiple communities while also widening viewers’ perspective.

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By: Dev Shields

I have a hard time digesting the typicalities of “mental health awareness” events. There are hashtags and buttons and stickers. There is yoga, tea, and treats. There is some form of  discussion. The week ends. We are still mentally ill. I will still attend a class for the first time in three weeks and someone will say “why can’t you just come to class?”

MacTalks is a relatively new happening, first set in motion by former VP Education Rodrigo Narro Perez. The first MacTalks week was held last year alongside McMaster’s newly unveiled “Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.” Unfortunately, the attempt misses some crucial points.

Firstly, mental health awareness weeks tend to cater to “high functioning” depressive or anxiety ridden people, meaning someone who is at least partially able to carry on about your day and fulfill commitments (but doesn’t necessarily mean they are “not as sick”).

There are a couple of immediate issues with this. What about those who are not high functioning? People who can’t even manage to make it out of the house in the morning aren’t going to benefit from an event being held in the atrium.

Accessibility seems to have become something of a buzzword, but it is ironic that the events that are supposed to support accessibility for people with mental health issues and mental illnesses are well... inaccessible! The absence of online forums or streaming services for these events makes them off limits to those who find themselves too sick to leave the confines of their bedroom.

Secondly, what about those who are not dealing with depression or anxiety? Both are serious, debilitating and powerful illnesses. I struggle with them on a daily basis. However, it seems to me that most of the dialogue at events such as MacTalks does not address any other types of mental illness. You are hard pressed to find an abundance of discourse around PTSD, schizophrenia, psychopathy/sociopathy, bipolar disorder, depersonalization disorder or dissociative disorder, to name a few. Leaving out important information on these illnesses is defeating the purpose of having an awareness event in the first place.

This kind of dialogue leads to sanitized discussion. For example, while there is acknowledgement that self-harm exists and is widespread, there is not nearly enough focus on it. We are quick to romanticize people who have “overcome” their self-harm — their story is triumphant, acceptable, palatable — but there is no adequate support while the harming is ongoing. While SHEC will be holding an event about self-injury, the description available on the MSU website seems to imply that there will be no explicit talk of dealing with the actual physical wounds themselves. We know it is going on, so why can’t we be frank about it during a week devoted to mental health? Where are the forums about self-injury? Where are the pamphlets about how to clean wounds and avoid infection? How about support groups? Instead of involving ourselves and becoming aware, like these events promise, we dismiss the things that seem too touchy.

People who can’t even manage to make it out of the house in the morning aren’t going to benefit from an event being held in the atrium.

I think intention is important, and it is valid, but impact is by far more important. Awareness events like MacTalks have left a bad taste in my mouth. Dismissal of large groups of people who identify with being mentally ill or having poor mental health sabotages the idea of an all-encompassing and inclusive event.

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The MSU is well on its way to launching Maccess, its newest service. As the name suggests, Maccess will cater to students with both visible and invisible disabilities, with the goal of peer-based support and advocacy.

“What's different about this [service] is that it's peer-centric and that it also helps to capture students who maybe suffer with acute disabilities, so that captures students who deal with mental health concerns,” explained Giuliana Guarna, VP (Administration) of the MSU.

“We know there's a desire for peer support and we know there's also a desire to have an advocacy component that teaches students self-advocacy and also in the sense of campaigns and educating the campus, and advocating to the university.”

Guarna hopes the service will help prevent students from feeling “othered,” and while Maccess does not have a confirmed space yet, due to the logistics of physical accessibility concerns, she stressed the importance of finding a non-medical space. “Many students don’t find the medical resources to be sufficient,” she explained.

She also hopes Maccess will pioneer a better ally system for students with disabilities. While Student Accessibility Services runs its own version of the program, she said, “Many of the students who are part of the ally program don’t actually have a disability. So they don’t really appreciate the nuances of navigating the university while having a disability.” The service would hopefully launch a version of the program where students with disabilities could share tips about accommodations.

Ultimately, it will be Alex Wilson, the service’s newly hired coordinator who will work to shape the service. The selection committee, made up of Guarna, Brandon Stegmaier, the MSU Services Commissioner and Nishan Zewge-Abubaker, the MSU’s Diversity Services Director, worked with a set list of competencies to find a candidate who fit the job description. “[We wanted] someone who understands what is currently happening on campus with regards to disability and what services already exist,” explained Guarna. “Second, we are looking for someone who can build an inclusive space that would operate under an anti-racist framework and that had knowledge of intersectionality.”

To Guarna, Wilson displayed all the qualities the committee looked for. “I think he has a very thorough understanding of the role of peer support based on his role with SHEC. He also has a very strong understanding of working with campus and our community partners,” she said.

In regards to the role that lived experiences with disability played in hiring, Guarna said that the committee never said that they were exclusively going to hire someone with a disability, visible or invisible.

“We never even said we were going to hire someone with a disability. I mean, obviously we would hope that we do, because they're going to have that more nuanced understanding; however, I don't think it's even fair for us to have to expect a student to self-identify, because again, that is a barrier. And that in itself creates a barrier for those students, having to say, ‘I have this disability.’”

Wilson, for his part, is looking forward to taking on his new role. Starting in January, he will work six hours a week on developing the service, a job he will continue over the course of the summer, the goal being to officially launch the service September 2016, though it remains to be seen in what form.

“The next few months will be very dynamic as we look at how the collaboration between SAS, SWELL, SWC, HRES and Maccess turns out.” He also cited that finding a permanent, readily accessible space was another factor that would be vital in getting the service set up.

While progress has been made, the Maccess has a long way to grow yet, and it will be exciting to see how the new advocacy service develops.

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By: Saad Ejaz

According to MSU Diversity Services Abilities Coordinator Sophie Geffros, there is a positive wave of support and engagement for making campus more accessible for students with disabilities.

On Oct. 8, Diversity Services and the University Affairs Committee hosted the Second Annual Accessibility Forum.

The event focused on how individuals with disabilities and other student groups can come together to share stories and brainstorm ways to improve the accessibility experience at McMaster. The topics of interest focused on how disabilities, chronic medical concerns, mental health issues and madness affect student life.

The theme of this year’s event was “Breaking the Stigma,” and unlike other discussions around accessibility, the focus was to further explore the other challenges common to being a student aside from attending classes.

“We had small group discussions, all of which were lead by facilitators with disabilities, and we talked about things like social events, attending parties, disclosing to an employer and relationships,” says Geffros. The third year Philosophy and Biology student stated, “The end result of all of this is that, by working with University Affairs, I will generate a report based on what we heard from students who attended it, and actually will make recommendations to how we can change Mac and perhaps even the McMaster accessibility policy.”

The committees are also working on a Maccess service along with other bi-weekly support events, which are aimed at strengthening the McMaster community in particular for students with disabilities.

The event was a great success. However, Geffros said it is only the first step. The real work is yet to come in order to implement ideas and continue to build the already positive McMaster community.

Photo Credit: Mike Beattie

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By: Michael Running

Most of us take time for granted. Whether you’re talking about the 10 minutes you have to move from class to class or the hour and a half you’re given to write your midterm, few people are actually cognizant of its value.

This past week, the MSU hosted Maccess, a campaign held on campus to raise awareness for the issues faced by McMaster students living with different forms of disability. These students are especially aware of how important their time is, and one of the main goals of the campaign was to help others understand the struggles that they face on a daily basis. These struggles include not having enough time to reach their next class due to obstacles like stairs or snow-covered sidewalks in the winter, dealing with a mental disability or illness that requires having to seek accommodations for more time on tests or extensions on assignments and having to wait over a month to get an appointment with Student Accessibility Services for the aforementioned accommodations.

Maccess attempted to raise awareness for these issues through activities including chalking off areas around campus to demonstrate the level of accessibility, holding training sessions where students could learn sign language or how to be a sighted guide, hosting a presentation and discussion on mental health, and even an event called “Accessible Perspective” that put able-bodied people in wheelchairs in an attempt to demonstrate the difficulties one could face moving around campus.

VP (Education) Spencer Nestico-Semianiw, was one of the driving forces behind the campaign. “We wanted to have a very holistic campaign that tried to highlight a variety of different disabilities to make students more aware of the challenges on campus,” said Semianiw.

However, some people questioned the direction that the campaign took. Sarah Jama, the Ontario Director for the National Educational Association of Disabled Students and a McMaster student, stated, “I think there were pros and cons to the Maccess Campaign. I love the interactive map concept because it was tangible and works to better the lives of people with disabilities on campus.”

Jama was conflicted over events like Accessible Perspective. “What I questioned were the various simulations that [catered] to people without disabilities that were intended to give them a feel for what it was like to have a disability... The main focus here should be that everyone, no matter your ability, deserves to learn and experience a barrier-free environment,” she explained.

While Semianiw acknowledged that there were concerns about running these events, he felt it was important because it provided a snapshot for students and staff at the university to gain some understanding of the struggles students may be facing. “We wanted it to be something where we actually have the university be able to see how accessibility affects students.”

He also mentioned that they facilitated a session with Sean Van Koughnett, McMaster’s Associate Vice President and Dean of Students. “These are the decision-makers that we want to have a very good understanding of these problems because they’re the ones ideally who are going to be looking at funding or looking at decision-making that improves accessibility on campus,” he said.

Regardless of whether or not they approached the topic from the right perspective, the campaign garnered considerable attention. Days after the campaign’s conclusion, at this Sunday’s SRA meeting, the Assembly voted in favour of launching a full-flegded, official service with the same name.  The service will function as a peer support network for students with disablities. Although the campaign and the launch of the service are not directly linked, this decision indicates that the campaign is just the beginning of long-term advocacy efforts for increased accessibility on campus.

Photo Credit: Mike Beattie

Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, Reza Moridi, came to McMaster this afternoon to announce an additional $6-million investment in accessibility programs at Ontario Universities.

“McMaster University is a fitting place for today’s announcement. This is an institution committed to creating and supporting a learning environment, and has put a lot of thought and planning into ensuring that students with disabilities have access to the services and support they need to thrive and prosper,” said Moridi.

The province will be investing $4.5 million to help students with disabilities through an Accessibility Fund for Students with Disabilities, and a Summer Transitions Program. Similar to McMaster’s Shifting Gears program, the Transitions Program will offer workshops and courses for high school students with disabilities coming into postsecondary education.

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Jama addresses the crowd on the importance of increased accessibility

“It’s very hard for students sometimes to transfer from high school to university without this kind of support, because often, students with disabilities are not taught to self-advocate and speak up for themselves.

“Programs like this, and funding like this, will teach students that they matter, that they belong here, and that there is a space for them and a voice for them at McMaster,” said Sarah Jama, McMaster student and Ontario Director of the National Educational Association of Disabled Students.

This announcement comes on the heel of Jama’s recent presentation to the Student Representative Assembly’s June 21 meeting, on a proposed increase to the services provided for students with both visible and invisible disabilities. Jama, also a member of the SRA’s Social Sciences Caucus and Abilities Ad Hoc Committee, addressed the need for a peer-based program that will allow students with disabilities to help one another, at this past Sunday’s meeting. Today’s announcement will hopefully lead to meeting the clear need and demand for increased accessibility services on campus.

The remaining $1.5 million of the investment will be going towards a variety of programs including: note-taking services for students with visual impairments; interpreter services for deaf, deafened and hard of hearing students; learning assessment services; and computer and tablet applications that change text-to-speech and vice versa.

Previous investments in accessibility on campus have lead to the creation of the Accessible Campus website, the Innovative Design for Accessibility, or IDeA, competition for students, among other campus-based initiatives across the province.

Moridi explained that Ontario universities and colleges have seen close to a doubling of students with disabilities since the first implementations of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act in 2003, thus making accessibility on campus an even more pressing issue.

“Your success matters to all of us. Together we can build a more accessible, more enlightened, more inclusive, and more economically prosperous Ontario.”

Accessibility is clearly not a priority when it comes to issues that exist on campus. At least, that’s the impression I left with after the General Assembly had adjourned.

The majority of the General Assembly was spent arguing over which motions deserved to be debated first. Specifically, both the BDS motion supporters, as well as the Anti-BDS motion supporters in room were adamant on having their motions debated first, as they opposed each other.

Personally, I submitted four motions to the General Assembly that called for: better accessibility at the Athletic and Recreation Centre, prioritizing ramp clearing during the winter, having a new ramp installed in front of the Burke Science Building, and having a survey administered to Student Accessibility Services users, focused on accessibility issues that are not directly related to academics (i.e. Welcome Week, and barriers of entry into campus buildings).

Wanting to get through to all of the items on the agenda, I suggested that the motions be discussed in the order they were received by the speaker, so that we could get to each motion fairly without further discussion about logistics. This would place the BDS motion first on the agenda, the accessibility motions second, the motion about Kosher and Halal food at Bridges third, and the Anti BDS motion last.

The majority of the room agreed with this amendment, and this is where things started to take a turn for the worst. Those who were against having the BDS motion discussed first, made another amendment, this time using my accessibility motions in order to politically manipulate the situation. A massive amount of people started to argue that my accessibility motions were more important than the other student issues on the agenda, using these statements to solely aid the argument that the BDS motions should be discussed after the Anti BDS motion, as long as the accessibility motions were discussed first.

Though I agreed that accessibility should be made a priority, I felt used. I was disappointed and disagreed with the concept of using accessibility issues at McMaster University as a way to get one political issue spoken about before the other at the Assembly. On top of that, those using my motions in their argument undermined and ignored the fact that I already voiced, twice, that I wanted the motions to be discussed in the order they were received by the speaker.

When this amendment failed, a significant amount of people on the Anti BDS side refuted this, making yet another amendment. This time, the majority of people who originally claimed they wanted accessibility to be priority, scratched this argument. They demanded that both the political motions be completely taken off the agenda. When this amendment also failed to pass, they left the room. This back-and-forth wasted so much time that no other issues on the agenda was discussed. I felt like my accessibility motions weren’t taken seriously by the people feigning so much support for them. The walk out killed time, disrupted quorum, and showed little respect for the other motions on the agenda.

I was not expecting the lack of accessibility on campus to be used at the General Assembly solely to cause advantages or disadvantages to other motions. I was not expecting to be denied speaking time because of agenda ordering. As an incoming Social Science SRA representative, I do plan to bring these accessibility issues up at future Student Representative Assembly meetings, but the fact that a lot of students at the General Assembly either placed these issues on the back burner, or used them to achieve their own political goals, has caused me to question whether accessibility on campus really is important to students at McMaster University.

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Tobi Abdul
Staff Reporter

Winter tends to elicit mixed feelings. As temperatures drop and snow falls, some people love to bundle up and walk in the brisk cold. To many others, winter is a miserable few months. Regardless of which part of the spectrum people fall on, there is the general consensus that winter road and sidewalk conditions make it difficult to enjoy this season.

While walking to school you slip at least five times, you’re frozen by the time you arrive, and getting to classes seems to take a lot longer than you remembered. Getting around in the winter is usually a pain for everyone. On a scale of one to ten, most fall close to the “love skiing, skating, and sledding but for the love of God, winter, go away” side.

But for many, winter has some serious challenges that come from needing a mobility device. When the pathways and roads of McMaster are icy, slippery, or wet, many people with crutches, canes, walker, and wheelchairs face a whole new campus.

Second-year student named Sophie Geffros uses a manual wheelchair to get around campus and finds that in wintertime, she’s spending a lot more time commuting between buildings.

“The furthest I have to go from is MDCL to ABB. In the summer it takes me around seven or eight minutes but in the winter, I find that it takes me around 15.”

In -38 C, where exposed skin can freeze in three to five minutes, 15 minutes in the cold can seem like eternity.

Even getting to campus is a struggle if you have a mobility device and take the bus. In extreme cold weather, sometimes the automatic ramp on the buses don’t work, making it inaccessible for that day.

“I miss significantly more class in the winter,” said Geffros, “Even after I make it to campus sometimes I realize that it’s not working. I have three classes back to back to back in Health Sciences, TSH and MDCL, and 10 minutes is not enough time. I either have to leave class early or get to class late.”

The Student Accessibility Services office at McMaster helps students with any special needs including medical issues, physical impairments, mental health issues and learning difficulties.

“I think the main issue is that SAS is primarily designed to deal with students with learning difficulties and they do a good job accommodating academically but when you faced with mobility impairments, and you say that you need this thing, they don’t have much practice with providing people with help in that way,” said Geffros.

SAS does help with services such as note-taking and extension leniency but unfortunately, it doesn’t always help when someone is already on campus. Even students without mobility impairments have experienced difficulties walking across some parts of campus that are extremely icy and have not been salted or opening doors that have small banks of snow in front of them.

“There’s a huge problem with where they put the snow once they shovelled it off stairs and sidewalks. First it takes them a long time to get it off the sidewalk, then once they’ve gotten it off… they cover the smooth bit of the curve which is where, if you use a mobility device, you need to go down on the curb on and you can’t because it’s covered by a chunk of ice,” said Geffros.

“There should be more areas that are treated as constantly as others since small paths are just as important as large streets,” says Jamie Lai, the Abilities Coordinator for MSU Diversity.

These conditions are not only annoying to navigate around, but they can also be dangerous. Third-year student Georgy Dhanjal uses a power wheelchair to get around campus and says that getting to classes increases from three to five minutes to eight to 10 minutes in the wintertime. Although he can navigate on top of snow more easily than he could with a manual chair, the icy conditions on campus still make it a hassle.

“Mac does a great job at making sure that ice/snow is removed from ramps such as the one behind BSB or right by MUSC, and that is great for everyone. However I do have an issue with how the school goes about its open/close policy in terms of hazardous conditions, such as the day in which the ground was extremely icy,” said Dhanjal

“The low temperature is something we can bundle up for, and as Canadians it is expected, however when something so simple as getting from point A to B becomes dangerous, that’s where I draw the line,” he continued

Getting from point A to B on a reasonably sized campus should be simple, but when the conditions of campus are subpar, it becomes an issue of safety rather than convenience. For Geffros, unclear pathways can cause physical injury while trying to navigate through the ice and snow.

“The actual pavement is very poorly maintained, especially in the quad. There are big chunks of cracked pavement. In the summer you can navigate around but in the winter you can’t see it, and it looks icy but clear but then you go flying out of your chair. Quite a few times I have actually gone flying, landed on my face, books everywhere, sometimes my wheelchair has rolled away,” she said.

On extremely cold days, most of us are concerned about getting to warmth as quickly as possible, but there is the added pressure of having to navigate around potential hazards.

“I have seen some people in their wheelchairs going against traffic because sidewalks and pathways are inaccessible,” says Lai. “There’s a large emphasis on people who require wheelchairs, and there are also people who use walking aids and who are visually impaired who need their paths to be clear so that they don’t risk injury. Those who use walking aids, even temporarily, can find that even though they never get stuck in the snow, they sometimes have to rely on other people to get around,” Lai continued.

“I had crutches in the fall and found that some of the automatic door buttons don’t actually work and I’d have to find a way to manoeuvre. I can’t imagine having to do that outside in freezing temperatures,” said fourth-year student Hans Loewig.

At times, it just isn’t possible to get through campus without a little help. Dhanjal encourages students to get in touch with services like SAS that can help them in the winter.

“I think that those who begrudgingly attempt to navigate campus during the winter time, and do not know of these services too well, may seem uncomfortable asking for help. The truth is that these services are great sources for assistance, and I definitely recommend seeking their assistance when necessary,” says Dhanjal.

Friendly students are also an option to help if you find yourself stuck in the snow.

“Fellow students are the best when it comes to assistance. If my chair tires get stuck in the snow, or if perhaps I need a push to get across some ice, there is always someone I can count on at this school, stranger or not,” says Dhanjal.

Since most people are busy trying to get to their destination as fast as they can, it can help if more people are alert to their surroundings.

“Last week I was constantly stuck in the snow, I had to flag people down to help me, otherwise I would’ve just stayed there,” said Geffros.

Winter is great for a lot of things, like hot chocolate, hockey, and candy canes, but it really is the worst for making your way around. Some people can walk over that crack in the ice, or step over the snow bank, but for others, getting across campus can be a frustrating and time consuming feat. Take the extra time to help someone whose chair is stuck in the snow or guide someone with a visual impairment around the icy parts of the sidewalk.

Photo by Eliza Pope / Assistant Photo Editor

Stephanie Mascarin
The Silhouette

Parents often tell their children that they can be whatever they want when they “grow up.” Teachers support this notion, decorating their walls with posters that have slogans like, “your attitude determines your altitude.” The media glamorously portrays young men and women with fun and prosperous careers. Society promotes hard work as the key for success.

What they don’t say, though, is that no one will help you get there.

Obtaining a university degree or college diploma in Ontario should be more affordable for students. As is engrained into children from elementary school onwards, education is a fundamental aspect of having a successful career. But with rising tuition costs it is increasingly difficult for students to afford this education. Coupled with rising credentialism and increased competition in the job market, this generation of students is faced with more obstacles than generations past.

In Ontario, the average student debt has increased and youth unemployment is higher. The game is the same as it was for past generations, but the rules have changed; a university or college education is still necessary to obtain a good job, but it is more costly.

Between 1976 and 2012, tuition costs in Ontario have more than doubled, from around $2,500 to $6,600 per year. Although the Ontario government offers the Ontario Student Assistance Program, or OSAP, not every student can qualify for this. OSAP is a government-funded student loan that is based on “educational plans and personal circumstances.” OSAP does help many students afford school, as they offer a combination of loans and grants that do not need to be paid back until the student’s schooling is complete. In this way, Ontario is making strides in the right direction for making college and university more affordable for students.

However, this loan does not apply to everyone; the amount of money a student and their parents earn during the fiscal year, through their income tax return form, determines if aid is offered and how much. It seems that an education is only obtainable for the upper class and those who are considered by the government to be financially needy. But what about the middle class? What about the average family who earns too little to pay tuition in full, yet too much to qualify for OSAP?

In 1990, an Ontario family on average would spend 93 percent of their disposable income on tuition for their child. This equated to about 87 workdays to pay off tuition debt for one child.

This figure has drastically increased to date, with tuition now costing 150 percent of their disposable income to put a child through school, which translates to 195 workdays to pay back the debt. For families with more than one child, these numbers become staggering. And students often need to obtain graduate or professional degrees to stay competitive, which substantially increases their debt. Students and their families get caught in this trap of needing to obtain an education that they simply cannot afford.

This ties into the issue of student unemployment, as graduates are finding it increasingly difficult to get a job to pay off this debt. This year, the unemployment rate for people age 15-24 was 15 per cent, which is double the unemployment rate of the general population. When graduates do find a job, it is often in fields that they are either overqualified for or ones that are unrelated to their degree. This is partially due to baby-boomers staying in the workforce longer, which is a variable that the education system cannot control.

However, the system can control how many students are accepted into programs with a low demand in the economy. Since schools do not do this, there are more graduates than jobs available. Students used to come out of school with a guaranteed job; now they come out with a piece of paper and $30,000 debt. Students are sent out to battle in the real world being told they have ammo, but instead they are given blanks.

It is evident that this needs to change. Imbedded in higher education is the notion of exclusion; part of what makes a degree or diploma so valuable is that it is specialized and elite. However, this exclusion should only be based on academics.

Why should someone’s financial situation affect the level of education they are able to obtain?

Privileging the wealthy, or those who can qualify for funding like OSAP, over other students is not conducive to societal progression. Just because someone can afford school does not mean they will benefit society. Excluding a substantial portion of the population from being able to afford an education is limiting society’s potential; perhaps the next Steve Jobs will come from a low-income family.

This generation of graduate students is Ontario’s, Canada’s, and the world’s future. It is a shame that society leaves them so ill equipped to be successful in the real world—successful not only financially, but also personally. Imagine how productive students could be if they did not have to worry about staggering tuition debt, or if they could enter into the field of their choice. There might be fewer students entering the corporate rat race and more pursuing careers based simply on their passion.

For the sake of graduates and society, hopefully there will be at time when children can be whatever they want when they “grow up.”

Initiative for Global Access to Medicines
Global Health Advocacy 4ZZ3

 

Ten years ago this week, the Canadian Access to Medicines Regime was created. Its purpose was to improve global access to medicines by allowing Canadian generic pharmaceutical companies to reproduce patented medicines at a lower cost, which could then be distributed to countries where these medicines are inaccessible.

In doing this, Canada was a global leader and tried to set an international precedent to use inexpensive generic drug manufacturing to improve access to lifesaving drugs worldwide.

Unfortunately, Canada’s leadership was short-lived. In its ten-year existence, CAMR has only been used once, highlighting its failure. CAMR procedures were found to be too cumbersome, and the only generic pharmaceutical company to ever use CAMR vowed never to try it again.

Last year, Canada had a chance to plug the holes in the original legislation. Although petty politics got in the way of the Canadian government’s chance to where to get azithromycin fix CAMR, there is still hope for improving global access to medicines. There is another option for Canada to use its strong pharmaceutical sector for the global good.

The Orphan Drug Regulatory Framework, a set of incentives meant to encourage research and development for rare and neglected diseases, is being brought to Parliament in Winter 2014. Rare diseases are those that affect less than five in 10,000 Canadians, while neglected diseases are those that disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries, but receive little research funding. The ODRF legislation is a key opportunity for Canada to address the global disease burden.

Right now, Canadian pharmaceutical companies are not motivated to perform research on drugs for the diseases that most affect the developing world. The ODRF does not do enough to help stimulate such interest, particularly in the case for ultra-rare and neglected diseases. An additional incentive is needed so that researching these drugs is profitable for Canadian companies.

Canada should look to the United States’ in its innovative creation of Priority Review Vouchers. To provide further incentives to the ODRF, priority review vouchers can be awarded to pharmaceutical companies that develop rare and neglected disease therapies. In the regular review process, it takes Health Canada an average of 18 months to review and approve a new drug. Most of this time is spent waiting in line to begin the testing process. But under the priority review, certain drugs, such as those that target life-threatening diseases, are reviewed in just 3 months.

Priority review ensures that drugs complete the same approval processes and pass the same safety and quality testing, but without waiting in line. Priority review vouchers — which would allow companies to redeem these priority reviews for any drug — could be worth up to $300 million dollars in profits for pharmaceutical companies, since they allow for earlier market introduction of drugs.

This is a low-cost solution for the Canadian government that will increase profits for pharmaceutical companies, thus making it a financially sustainable enterprise.

Priority review vouchers will have a significant impact not only for Canadians living with rare and ultra-rare diseases, but can also have implications on global access to medicines. By incentivizing research and development on treatments for neglected diseases in addition to rare disorders, Canadian pharmaceutical companies will also be targeting the issue of availability of essential drugs to people in the developing world.

Canada has come a long way, but it still has a ways to go to fulfill its global commitments. Although the ODRF is an important step forward, but Canada needs to include priority review vouchers if it is to improve global drug access.

Canada was once a leader in access to medicines, and Canada can re-establish this role on the world stage once again.

 

Contributors: Asha Behdinan, Justina Ellery, Anna Foster, Esaba Kashem, Jennifer Romano, Sarah Silverberg.

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