From fewer clubs to cutbacks to on-campus jobs, universities and colleges are bracing for the impact of the province’s new rules around opting out of some ancillary fees.

With students starting to log in online to pay their post-secondary bills, they’re taking a look at what’s mandatory and where they can reduce costs — though universities and student governments are urging them to keep supporting campus activities, which have relied on ancillary fees to operate.

And with the opt-out period extending well into the fall for most institutions, it will be weeks before student governments and clubs know what their budgets are. Millions of dollars are at stake.

“We worked really hard to talk to student societies and since this is the first year, encouraging them to be flexible and not get too far ahead in terms of what plans they may be making,” said Sandy Welsh, who is the University of Toronto’s vice-provost of students.

Fewer student jobs “may be an unfortunate reality,” she also said. “All of our student societies provide great employment on campus, and we have to see where (they) land.”

“We hope that our societies and our services continue to be supported by our students” across all three campuses, she added.

Up until now, students have paid ancillary fees — which can add up to about $2,000 in annual costs on top of tuition — for services and clubs such as food banks, student governments and on-campus radio stations or newspapers.

Earlier this year, in announcing a 10 per cent tuition cut, the Ford government also said it would allow students to opt-out of a number of ancillary fees. Fees supporting student health and safety — such as walk-home services, athletics, career services and counselling — remain mandatory.

Health and dental plans are also a must, unless students already have private coverage, and transit passes too provided the university already has a program in place.

The government has said the move is to bring more “predictability and transparency” and “(give) students a choice to decide where they spend their money.”

Amin Ali, a Toronto District School Board student who is heading into his first year at Carleton University next month, plans to pay in full — even for optional fees for the debating society, running club, campus radio station and free legal clinics.

He’s calculated that the optional fees total about $87 per semester, or $174 for the year, out of his almost $20,000 post-secondary bill.

“So it’s really less than penny change in the grand scheme of things,” Ali said.

Queen’s University in Kingston worked closely with student representatives to provide a detailed list and description of its fees, including an optional “membership” for the AMS student association for undergraduate students.

Paying the $52.38 allows students to take part in clubs “conferences and events, access to 1,000s of jobs and volunteer positions, and voting for representatives,” says the Queen’s website.

Tom Harris, interim provost and academic vice-principal, said universities are not allowed to make up any funding shortfalls using their operating budgets, but that Queen’s is hopeful students will support important initiatives like the food bank.

(Harris has also started a working group “that is exploring additional measures the university can take to help address the issue of food insecurity on campus,” he also said.)

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But until the deadline of Sept. 30, it’s a guessing game.

“As you can imagine, there’s a full-court press on” to inform students of the importance of such services and clubs to the campus as a whole, Harris said.

As for on-campus jobs, “there’s no question there’s the potential for those to have to be downsized,” he added, and clubs will have to seek sponsors or up fundraising efforts.

In the past, with opt-outable fees — which at Queen’s were decided by referendum the previous year — opt out rates have been about 20 to 30 per cent, he said.

But this year “it’s really new territory for all of us,” Harris added. “The challenge student (groups) have is they need a budget for the year, not yet knowing what the budget is.”

The planning, he added, “is with trepidation. I think they are being cautions.”

Catherine Dunne, president of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, said student governments are “trying to predict as best they can the different scenarios. It’s really a trial for us; we’ll have to make really tough decisions about what services are provided.”

She’s worried that programs for marginalized students won’t garner much support, but said “I’m also optimistic that students care.”

That said, there is a real fear that the student experience will take a hit, she added.

“We are really worried that the vibrancy on our campuses will be affected.”

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