(Courtesy UNB)
A University of New Brunswick student believes she was racially profiled after the university incorrectly charged her tuition fees.
Yukie Xie, a Bachelor of Business Administration student, was charged more than three times her expected fees for the summer semester.
The university says a “technical glitch” led to the error, but Xie says she was the only member of her class who was charged more as a result of the glitch.
Xie said upon discovering the error she attempted to contact the school but was unable to reach anyone at the Fredericton campus to fix the problem.
She didn’t have the money to pay the $13,000 fee by the tuition deadline. When the school corrected the error she paid the correct amount, but was charged with a late fee for not paying the international student fees on time.
After posting about her experience on social media, Xie says the school got back to her quickly.
“All I wanted was an explanation on my account, and who flagged me down as an international student when I’ve been at university for four years, and I’ve never been assessed,” she said.
The school explained it was a glitch which affected the UNB Saint John co-op students. Xie’s classmates were undercharged for their program, while her tuition increased by $9,000.
She says she was pleased the school got in touch with her to fix the problem quickly, but the experience was frustrating.
“It feels like (they’re) profiling me basically on my name,” she said. “Either it’s my legal name (Wen Yu Xie), or my English name Yukie. To me, it’s an assumption ‘oh, she has a non-European name, so I’ll check her file off as an international student.'”
In a statement, UNB President Dr. Paul Mazerolle said personal information did not play a part in the error.
“We want to be clear that racial profiling and systemic racism are real and harmful,” the statement reads. “This situation was a technical error. UNB is committed to dealing with systemic racism in all forms through our Bi-Campus Presidential Standing Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and institutional Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan.”
Xie says that through posting her story to social media she has heard from many other students who have experienced the same thing, at schools across Canada.
“There’s people coming from different universities all over Canada and it’s happened to them too,” she said.
Xie praised the UNB Saint John campus for going out of their way to reach out to her after hearing about the glitch.
“The Saint John campus has been helping me so much,” she said. “They shouldn’t have to do that. They’re professors, they shouldn’t be dealing with the financial issues of their students.”
