Guelph Ontario Public Research Group (G-OPIRG) is one of the services students can opt out of.

While the organization, which functions across the country, is generally around to teach people about engaging in social actions, the Guelph chapter has an important role in the community.

"We have the Two-River Clean-Up that we do every year ... We do tree plantings throughout the year ... We do river restoration activities ... We do invasive species polls ... So many folks show up." says Natali Euale, organizational co-ordinator for G-OPIRG.

"We literally don't have any funding, basically, to run that program. So we're trying to figure out what we're going to do," she says.

OPIRG relies entirely on fees collected by students. Euale was told by the Central Student Association (CSA), which is responsible for administering the fees, that about 30 per cent of students opted out of the $7.23 G-OPIRG fee.

Because of the cut, they've had to let go of their volunteer co-ordinator, a salaried position that's been with the organization for 10 years.

Euale says she now has to add that work to her existing role.

"It's going to make it a lot harder to do all the things that we were doing for the city in previous years."

For other campus groups, things aren't much better.

Bella Harris, the co-ordinator for the Guelph Queer Equality group, says she was told around 35 per cent of students opted out of the $0.35 fee they collect this semester.

On campus, Harris says the group maintains a space where "LGBTQ folks can feel at home."

They also provide support for people dealing with mental health issues and education for people who want to understand more about the community — like parents and friends.

"What we do with that money is pretty amazing," she says.

In the city, Harris says the group has taken on events like the Trans Discussion Panel, "where we invite community members from a variety of backgrounds who all identify as somewhere on the trans spectrum, and pay them to tell their story as they see fit."

She says they won't know until next semester what the real effect on their service is going to be, but they're planning to cut programs.

"(The SCI) has definitely been harmful for marginalized students," Harris says.

Trick or Eat cut

Things don't seem as bad for the Central Students Association, the main student union for undergrads at the U of G.

Meeting minutes from last year's CSA caucus showed the group expected only 60 per cent of students to opt in to their $18.49 fee.

In light of this, they intended to get rid of their vice-president e-external position and cancelled several programs. However, a revised budget released Sept. 18 shows they were able to retain over 80 per cent of fees.

Along with this, the university agreed to add a service fee to "mandatory fees the CSA administers, but is not compensated for" such as the health and dental plans, and the bus pass. They also stopped pro-rating fees for part-time students, says the budget report.

For the bus pass increase alone, the CSA received an additional $58,900 from students, according to their report. Increases to health and dental netted $21,500.

(Note: The Mercury Tribune reached out to CSA president Dena Van de Coevering several times over the last two weeks without response. Attempts to gain relevant information from university administration have mostly been directed to the CSA.)

Their budget report shows the CSA kept their VP, but cut the Student Health and Advocacy Centre's budget by about 50 per cent and eliminated a 20-year-old food collection program.

"SHAC provides human rights advocacy, and academic, legal (including landlord/tenant issues) and financial resources," says its website.

The CSA also cancelled the Trick or Eat program, which collected as much as 40,000 pounds of food in one night, months before Christmas.

Students participate in the Trick or Eat food drive in this Halloween 2011 file photo. | Chris Seto, Torstar

Pauline Cripps, the communication co-ordinator for the Guelph Food Bank, says they depended on that food to hold them over until Christmas time started.

She says she doesn't blame the CSA for its decision but she's worried people will be expecting students to gather their donations, like they've done every year for the past 20 years.

"People hold onto the (food donation) bags for Trick or Eat. We get calls every year from people who said no one came to their house," Cripps said.

"This year we're worried we'll get a lot more of those calls."

As the impact of the fees in the community continues to unfold, Euale says the move was patently unfair of the government.

"How can you ask a student, who is in a financially marginalized position, to pay for these fees?" she says.

"If you give (students) the option, they'll probably opt out ... even though the services that are funded by those fees are providing support for them."

Why hasn't the impact been as bad as originally thought?

The Mercury Tribune sent out emails to every student group on campus, but only received a handful of replies.

Several groups, who wanted to remain off the record, said that they didn't want the media to talk about the SCI. Their concern was that opt-in rates were better-than-expected because students were unaware of the initiative — and that any additional media coverage would lead to more people opting out.

Lori Bona Hunt, a spokesperson for the university, says the school informed students of the opt-out via e-mail, web page notices, and social media.

She says the total number of students who opted out of at least one program was 8,759 - between both undergrads and grad students. The university collected $1,688,969 in student fees this year, opposed to $2,079,664 last year, a difference of about 35 per cent.

With the CSA budget saying over 80 per cent of undergrads opted-in, it's likely that optional fees for grad students took a bigger hit. Attempts to contact the Graduate Students Association have also gone unanswered.

"If you're a first-year student, maybe you're not super aware of how paying your student fees work, so you're scared to un-click from certain things thinking it might mess something up," says Euale.

Harris also think that's a valid fear.

"If folks didn't know about it, then by default they would have given us money. Which is very difficult for a lot of organizations whose funding is at risk, so I definitely understand a lot of organizations didn't want to risk that," she says.

"But at the same time I think it's also really important that people know when they are funding things, they're funding things that are critical, and impossible to do on their own."