Madam, – It now seems certain we shall be expected to pay a ridiculously unjust graduation fee, at University College Cork. While some people are saying that we students should not be complaining over such a small fee (€65), we have already paid €1,650 per annum for student services.
The UCC Student Union questioned what the proposed fee (originally suggested at €80) would cover and were told that a “significant proportion” would go towards covering catering costs. When the union suggested catering be dropped to reduce the fee, as many students opt to dine with family instead, the representatives were told that the fee would be brought to €65.
The union finally secured a breakdown of what this is being spent on and there has been much heated debate on the issue.
I feel that the graduation fee should be scrapped. Of course, the ceremony is optional. If we refuse to pay the fee then we will be conferred in absentia, and our degree will be posted to us. This is ridiculous. Why should we, paying students, be excluded from our own graduation?
I am the first in my family to enter third level, and my parents have supported me so much in order to get me where I am today. I refuse to pay the fee, but I do not want to deny my parents the opportunity of seeing their eldest daughter graduate, with a diploma in hand. My family and I have been looking forward to my graduation day since the moment I entered third-level, and I cannot let them down now. – Yours, etc,