Four months after the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus learned it would be a host site of the 2015 Pan American Games, students are heading to the polls to determine the fate of the $140 million Olympic-sized pool required for competition.

According to the Scarborough Campus’ Student Union, from March 17-19 UTSC students will face a referendum asking them if they agree to a levy on tuition fees to support the construction of the recreation complex.

The proposed levy would add $80 a year to full-time student tuition until 2014. The levy will then increase to $280 for another 21 years once the facility is available to students.

The remaining cost of the facility, if built at UTSC, will be covered by the federal and provincial governments as well as the PanAm Games Committee. The university is responsible for $30 million, $22 million of which will be paid by students if the referendum passes.

Post-secondary students in Ontario may have to deal with the highest tuition fees in the country, but Alberta’s 125,000 students have their own heap of problems that are leaving them in the red years after graduation – if they graduate, that is.

The province has the third highest average tuition in Canada, at $5,520 for undergraduate students in 2009-2010, the lowest participation rate in its post-secondary school system, and the highest college and university dropout rate.

According to student representatives and advanced education critics, the Alberta government is to blame for these appalling statistics.

Liberal Advanced Education critic Harry Chase has spoken out against the recent cut to student grants, scholarships, and bursaries in the Alberta budget announced early last month as an example of the Progressive Conservative government “having their cake and eating it too.”