Watch out! Someone may be stealing your books while you're reading this article. The New Westminster ee by DAN HILBORN campus has been hit by ‘‘a rash of thefts’’ this month, ~ said Ken McCoy, manager of site services and security at Douglas College. On Monday, March 5 a ‘sentimentally valued’ sin- gle line black pen drawing titled ‘‘Jane’s Window’’ by Isobel McAslan was stolen from the art display being set up for Open House. That same day a portable stereo cassette valued at !'400 was taken from an unattended room and a !20 curling iron went missing. “Thefts happen regular- ly,’’ said McCoy, ‘‘hardly a week goes by without some- . oe being reported sto- en.”’ Ideally the college should have two security guards on duty during class hours, however, the operating bud- get can’t handle the extra expense, he said. ““When we’re at the sec- urity desk, thieves know it’s a free-for-all,’’ said one sec- urity guard, ‘‘but things have to happen before something will get done about it.’’ “It’s. easy pickins’ in here, it makes us look bad but there’s no way we can watch everything when we’re on by ourselves,’’ the guard said. Douglas College students and faculty consume a sur- prising amount of coffee and the intake seems to indicate a noticeable need or trend. Staff and students consume an average of 75 to 95 oounds of coffee per week. A pound of coffee yields about 40 cups of coffee which works itself out to anywhere from 3000 to 3800 cups of coffee a week. A staggering 174,800 on a averaged yearly basis. ‘THE Douglas College's Vad) Quay The telephone stolen last week was the fourth out of seven field base phones tak- en off campus since being installed in November. Pat Thomasson, manager of logistical services, said the college will probably replace the missing phones with more pay-phones. The phones were specific- ally designed for the col- lege’s switchboard system and the thieves will prob- ably find them incompatable for hook-up at home, she said. Lucille Kiem, the security “You can’t stress the im- portance of being cautious with your belongings,’’ said Lucille Kiem the security supervisor. Thefts over !100 will be reported to the police but she admits there are probably a lot of incidents that go unreported. Kiem said she once picked up a purse lying unattended in a room and placed it in the curriculum field base for safe keeping. The owner had assumed it had been stolen. “I'm trying to make peo- ple realize how quick and easy it is to lose something here,’’ she said. Also taken in the past week was a purse with !200 cash plus !410 in cheques and some credit cards. McCoy said his staff is ‘“so ridiculously low’’ they don’t even have the time to~ keep up to date statistics on stolen property. “It’s a bad scene,’’ he said. The Douglas College coffee achievers It isn’t known whether it _is atrend or an addiction. Coffee’ contains large amounts of caffeine, a de- pressant, which is just as addictive as any chemical that alters body chemistry to produce a ‘‘high’’ and like any depressant kills a small amount of brain cells. Al- though caffeine and a sub- ject may, by theory, experi- ence abnormal states of reality. It may well be that the coffee commercials are hav- ing a noticeable effect as did cigarette campaigns in the 50’s and 60's. Friday, March 16 1984 THER PRESS autonomous student newspaper Issue 16 Volume6 College hit by “rash of thefts” College given funding formula _ but no money Douglas College adminis- trators are still waiting to find out if the college: will recieve more or less funding for 1984/85. While the ministry of edu- cation presented the college with its program prefile on February 24, they failed to attach any dollar figures to the report. “‘Our best assessment is that the college has been well done by,’’ said presi- dent Bill Day. ‘‘Our great increase in productivity has resulted in a boosting of funded seats in academics and business administra- tion.” Day used the university transfer prog#am as an ex- ample of how the formula works. This year, the college fit 1,356 students into the pro- gram, while the ministry only supplied funding for 1,086 seats. The college asked for funding of 1,360 in 84/85 but the ministry only approved money for 1,200 seats. While this means an in- crease over this year’s fund- ing, it still doesn’t ‘match the number of seats filled in the program. But the college _ still doesn’t have to use the money in the programs the ministry allots it for. Day said the college puts all the funding into the total opera- ting budget and then disper- ses it into the areas the college puts priority on. The program _ profile shows decreases in office administration and child care aid. Office administra- tion will be hit with a 5.8 Full Time Equivalent drop, as opposed to the 5.1 de- crease reported in February. This is equivalent to a re- duction of 58 seats out of a total of about 540. The exact dollar figures will be presented sometime this month and the college will then have to decide whether of not to raise tuition, and whether the faculty will be given a pay increase. Faculty members were told last week that the stu- dent/teacher ratio at Doug- las has risen from around 23:1 in 1982 to almost 29:1 this year. Constitutions a mess The constitutions of both the student society and The Other: Publications Society are under. fire because of alleged contravention of the Canadian Charter of Rights. Sean Balderstone, presi- dent of the student society, said last week that it was unconstitutional for any so- ciety to force any person to pecome a member. The student society con- stitution currently states that all students at Douglas College shall be members of the society and revisions to the publication —_ society would add a similar clause. ‘Recently a student of Douglas College complained to the provincial ombuds- man _ about being forced “to pay the Other Press news- paper levy. Both societies will have their constitutions checked over by lawyers before theri Annual General Meetings are held. The student society AGM has been postponed to March 29 and the publica- tions society will hold its meeting March 22. Both meetings will be in Room 2201 at 12:00 p.m.