In the current context of COVID19 with all in-person classes and exams cancelled, all facilities closed (gym, libraries, offices), and even more limited access to our supervisors and committees, it is unfair to charge full tuition to graduate students this summer session. Why should graduate students have to pay full tuition for services & spaces to which they now have little to no access?

Further, our access to jobs (both on and off campus) has been radically reduced due to COVID19 closures and nearly none of us qualify for EI. This, coupled with the fact that many of us live with partners/friends/family/roommates who are equally facing major losses of income, will put many households in Hamilton and beyond in great economic jeopardy. Waving tuition will serve as a much needed source of economic relief for not just graduate students, but the households in which we live.

McMaster University made a surplus of $25 Million from the 2018-19 year alone. As a public institution, McMaster has an obligation to use its resources to support its community and ensure it is not profiting off of economic disparity. We are asking McMaster to use some of this rainy day fund to help their graduate students in their unprecedented time of need.