Undergrad degree, check.  LSAT, check.  Fourteen thousand three hundred and twenty-six dollar tuition, check.  Still considered an undergraduate, check.  WHAT??!!  Still considered an undergrad?

Welcome to The University of Western Ontario, where law, dental, medical, and business students in professional programs are all lumped in with undergraduate students.  Knowing where we stand is easy part, finding out why and how to change it becomes much like a Tom & Jerry (wow did I just date myself?) cartoon of pointing fingers.

This article has been brewing (or perhaps festering) in my brain since the first week of my 1L year.  Never before had I needed a parking pass during my undergrad days of the 90’s, however, entering school as a “mature” student, I now have a car.  I went and purchased my parking pass only to find out that my tuition, nearly three times the undergrad rate, got me exactly nothing.

I attempted to fill out my parking pass, but stopped when it asked if I was an undergrad or graduate student.  Hmm, no professional student designation?  Figuring that I am in law school, I checked “graduate.”  When I handed my form in I was met with a lovely lady who politely handed my application back and told me that law students are considered undergrads.  As such I would have to fight to obtain a parking position in Springett.

“Don’t worry we’re adding a bunch of spots” I was told.  So I carried on my merry way, drove to classes the next day, circled the parking lot like a buzzard, only to realize that ALL of the added spots were taken as well.  I was late for class that day as I had a choice of parking behind Althouse (Teacher’s College) or at TD Waterhouse Stadium.  I choice Althouse.

I asked around and never really received a satisfactory answer last year, and I resolved my parking situation like many law student’s do.  But I’ll leave that out of print.

Fast forward to this year.  I gave it another try, went and purchased my parking pass and asked again why we are considered undergraduates.  The same lovely lady said “that’s the way it’s always been.”  Hmm, quite unacceptable.

I said that most of my classes start at 2 o’clock, and she looked at me with a sorry face and said the undergrad lot is usually full by noon.

Now as I write this, we just finished our third week of class, and while the undergrad lot at Springett is full by noon, I would estimate there are AT LEAST 100 vacant spots in the Graduate/Faculty lot on ANY given day.

So again, why are we considered undergraduates?  I decided to put my old detective hat on and hit the pavement to find out.

However, I’ve come up with another question in the meantime.  Not only do we have a parking disadvantage, but also we have a health plan disadvantage.

If anybody has compared our undergraduate health plan to the graduate health plan, you will note that they have benefits for dental and vision.  Two benefits that the undergraduate plan does not accommodate for.

While this may not be an issue to some, it is an issue for me.  A quick insurance lesson:  Many plans that your parents have provide coverage to you if you are in school fulltime and under 25.  For student’s like me, that leaves no dental or vision coverage, both of which I would take advantage of.

For now, I will just role this secondary issue into with the first

As I set out to answer these questions my first stop USC office.  I was met with “I don’t know, go and talk to the people at Info Source.”

Down the stairs I went, waited in line, and spoke with an employee who said they do not make the decisions go to the Registrar’s office, “they’re the ones who classify the students.”

Down the hall and into the nice shiny new Student Services building I proceeded.

Here, there was a compilation of three employees, who provided equally weak answers:

1. “You are not considered a graduate because your program is an undergraduate degree.”  Perhaps with law (but is that not why we just changed to J.D.?  Again another article for another day), but not to so with medicine and dental.
2. “The University Senate made that decision, go talk to them.”  Which was probably the best answer out of the four.
3. “Go and speak with the Society of Graduate Student’s to see if they will make an exception to let you in.”  Riiiight, like that will happen.
4. And the best, “because that’s what other universities classify law students as.”  Oh, so we’re just followers now.  Is that what higher education has amounted to?  Herd mentality?

In the end, I still do not know why professional schools within The University of Western Ontario are considered undergraduates, and equally it does not sit well with me.

I raise this question, not because I think law students (or any professional school) are better than undergraduates.  But if the answers above are any indication, how can you justify charging almost 15 000 per year in tuition when university officials see this program as an undergraduate program?

As a strike vote looms between faculty and the university, I can surely guarantee the UWO Faculty Association (UWOFA) will not accept such arguments as “the Provincial government said no raises this year, so no raises,” as a bargaining position in the upcoming contract negotiations, so why should we?