Whatcha’ Doing
This Summer?

Hey, sports fans I hope your all sitting
on a park bench somewhere sunning
your selves and recuperating from
stresses of the semester. Just a note from
your friendly neighbourhood athletics
Co-ordinator to let you know that the
sports section doesn’t take a summer
holiday.

The sports department of the Other
Press plan on bringing you monthly
coverageeof. as many events as is
possible, everything from hiking, biking,
and rollerblading to tennis, and beach
volleyball. Unfortunately we are fighting
a numbers game as there are way to
many shy people out there. WE NEED
WRITERS. This means you, your best
friend, your pet iguana, your mom, your
aunt Betsy, ANYBODY.

. I would like to think that there are at
least some creative young (or old) minds
out there who would like a chance to
relate their wonderful summer
experiences to the rest of the student
body. If you have an interesting
recreational story to tell bring it in, there
is a very strong chance that you will see
it in print. This means anything. If you
want to write about the pains of
rollerblade road rash, FINE. It doesn’t
matter. If your embarrassed about that,
give a fake name. It’s your paper guys
and gals, YOU pay for it, YOU may as

Athietic

well use it. I look forward to receiving

your stories. Have a good one!
Please bring all submissions to the

OP office, room 1020.

Excellence

by Miguel Strother

As many of you may or may not
know every year DC holds its
Annual General Meeting (AGM).
This is a session in which students
have an opportunity to get involved
with some of the important issues
that will effect the student body in
the very near future, fee increases
being the most important.
Unfortunately, as is often the case
at DC, there is very little
participation and representation
from the student body.

To combat this problem, different
organisations and departments
throughout DC have embarked on
campaigns to raise student interest
and awareness. These campaigns, as
honourable as they might seem, are
often ineffective. One exception is
the campaign which has been
orchestrated by DC athletic director
Betty-Lou Hayes. Hayes and the rest
of the representatives of the athletics.
department are very adamant in
their desire to see student athletes
play a larger role in the college
environment. As difficult as it may
be for these students to find the time
to go above and beyond their studies
and athletic commitments, the
sports department found a way to
help these extraordinary students to
reach a higher plateau of excellence.

Many people give athletes
unwanted and unfounded titles such
as “dumb jocks” or “meat heads.”
But Canada has progressed beyond
the archaic days of letting athletes
coast by in their studies. Athletes put -
in at least the same amount of time
as regular students in order to
maintain a GPA of 2.1 in nine or
more credits, which is mandatory
for all student athletes. On top of
that they put in an equal amount of ©
time into their respective sports in
order to represent the college on the

court and the field. With all of these

time commitments one would think
that doing anything else would be
damn near impossible. Wrong. Of the
125 students who participated in this
years AGM, 75+ were student

Hayes and her cohorts realised that
this was an important opportunity to
have the athletics department show
what an extra ordinary group they —
have put together. Hayes decided that _
in order to get the athletes even more _
involved in the school she would
offer an incentive program. Each
athlete that participated in the AGM
was required to put there name on a
sign up sheet and record their
presence at the AGM and in return
they were promised a douglas
college sports bag in return. This may
seem like bribery to some but the
athletics department has denied this
accusation and claims that it is more
than happy to provide their athletes
with whatever they can to help them
become more involved with their
school.

If the AGM and other events, like
student elections, are going to see
success in the future, the College is
going to have to look for ways which
will make involvement appealing to
the student body. This doesn’t
netessarily mean providing material
rewards for all students, but with
events such as live music and beefed-
up sporting events, this College may
see increased student involvement
and enhanced enjoyment of ‘the
college experience. If the rest of the

_ college’s organisations and

departments follow Hayes’ strong
example, then brighter days are

-ahead.

April 30, 1996

 

 

 
 
 
   
  

 

 

 

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