Dear Editor:
I am a student at Capilano University. I am in the 2-D Animation program there, and it really disheartens me to know that I am paying three or four times the amount of what people who were in the year before us paid.
The commercial animation program (now the 2-D animation program) tuition was roughly $2,000 per semester, but for the fall 2014 semester the tuition was more than $6,000. Capilano University managed to increase the tuition that much by creating the “new” 2-D Animation program, even though we are essentially taking the exact same classes as the now non-existent commercial animation program.
The program itself is great and there isn’t really another animation program in B.C. comparable to it. Despite this, it was on the chopping block and they were forced to either raise the tuition or have the program cut entirely, but I would still rather pay more than not have it at all.
It’s sad that Capilano needs to make these cuts because of a lack of government funding, but I’m surprised they would be making cuts to the animation programs after they just built the brand new Bosa Centre for Film and Animation after they received a $6-million donation from Nat and Flora Bosa towards the building and these programs.
This upcoming year the 2-D animation program is doubling its class size from 24 students to 48, which is surprising after it was almost cut. Maybe it is more profitable to the university now because of the high tuition.
My next semester will cost almost $8,000, which means the cost of the entire two years of the old commercial animation program is now what we have to pay in a single semester.
StudentaidBC won’t even be able to cover the tuition entirely.
The price is now almost as much as what it would cost to go to a private institution such as Vancouver Film School, Vanarts or the Art Institute [of Vancouver], despite our university being publicly funded by the government.
Serena De Cotiis
North Vancouver
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