NANAIMO-Hundreds more British Columbians signed the petition to reduce student debt today as the Education Shouldn't be a Debt Sentence tour hit Vancouver Island University. The tour is organized by the Canadian Federation of Students-BC and is swinging through campuses across the province in February and March.

"BC families are suffering as record high tuition fees have led to record high student debt," said CFS-BC Chairperson Shamus Reid. "Whether they were students, staff, faculty, or administrators, hardly a person walked by without signing the petition to reduce student debt."

Playing host to the campaign tour, the Vancouver Island University Students' Union held a free soup kitchen with live music and gathered signatures on the petition.

"For far too many VIU students, education is a debt sentence," said VIUSU Chairperson Mikael Jensen. "We need our Nanaimo-area MLAs-Ron Canetelon, Leonard Krog, and Doug Routley-to stand up for their constituents and make reducing student debt a priority."

Tuition fees have more than doubled in BC since 2001 as per-student funding has been cut. The elimination of the BC grants program in 2004 accelerated student debt accumulation to the point where average debt upon the graduation of a four-year program now exceeds $27,000. Meanwhile, BC has the highest interest rates in the country on its student loans. The CFS-BC's campaign calls for the BC government to:

• reduce tuition fees;
• re-establish a grants program;
• eliminate interest on student loans; and
• restore funding to universities and colleges.

The Canadian Federation of Students-British Columbia is BC's provincial student organization, representing 150,000 university and college students at all levels of post-secondary education in BC. It is non-partisan and affiliated with Canada's largest national student organization, the Canadian Federation of Students.