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Undergraduates on most campuses would save less than $200 a year out of a total of about $2,000 in student fees if they opt out of all “non-essential” fees. It will be late September before campus organizations know how much they will be getting. Some are already cutting their paid staff as they scramble to figure out what opting out will mean for them. Those with reserve funds plan to limp through the next year and see what happens before making significant cuts.

“I think this fall will be a watershed moment,” said Crosier.

A lot of things are about to change on campuses across Ontario. Just how much, no one knows.

“If we’re talking 80 per cent of students opting in, it won’t change much. If it’s 10 per cent, it will be a disaster,” said Alex Usher, president of Higher Education Strategy Associates, a post-secondary strategies consultancy.

Photo by Jean Levac / Postmedia News

Student federations and unions will likely get hit, which means services they provide that are deemed non-essential will be reduced. That includes food banks, Indigenous centres, women’s centres and LGBTQ+ support centres.

Meanwhile, student unions create jobs. Carleton’s “student opportunities and spaces fee” creates more than 250 student jobs in student association businesses, for example.

Also optional: the hundreds of student societies and clubs such as debating clubs, drama societies, marching bands and community gardens. More than 250 clubs and societies at Carleton, for example, are supported by the optional clubs and societies fee.