| | b | | ) | ee Wedresday, January 18, 1984 ‘THE OTHER PRESS page 3 Between $40,000 and $50,000 will be. spent to relocate the offices of the community programs divi- sion, the student society and The Other Press, West by Dan Hilborn Graydon, the director of physical plant said last week. The move was requested by Dean of Community Pro- grams, Jim Doerr, because his. division is currently “scattered all over the place.’’ Doerr says that some of the offices they are using are borrowed from Human Services room, an ESL lab, and even one medical room. _ Because of the decision the student society offices will move across the con- course to room 2770, com- munity services will take over the 2300 area, and The Other Press will probably end up on the first floor near the student activity room. Some student society members are upset because president Sean Balderstone Govt. closes Nelson university ii #2"! VANCOUVER (CUP)- The B.C. Government’s decision to close the David Thomp- son University Centre has shocked and stunned _ its students and faculty. ““At this point I’m speech- less with shock at the radical action that was taken,’’ said Tom O’Connor, president of the Nelson university’s fac- ulty association. ‘‘We had no idea they were going to axe the whole program and cause a cultur- al catastrophe in the West Kootenays.’’ The rural uni- versity is known for fine arts programs, especially writ- ing. The Centre will close on April 30. Students and protesting the move. They launched an intensive letter writing campaign at a mass meeting, Jan.9. The Nelson arts community and _ city council will join in the pro- test campaign, student soci- ety president Gary Shaw said. 3 The Centre’s 450 full and part time students and 100 staff will be seriously affec- ted by the move. The government —an- nounced the closure Jan. 4 just four months after say- ing the centre would contin- ue to operate and notified the college’s director only one hour before the news appeared in the daily news- staff are paper. Education minister Jack Heinrich claimed the cen- tre’s limited enrolment and high costs were behind the decision to close the only degree granting institution outside of Vancouver and Victoria. But Shaw said enrolment was on the increase. Jack Finnbogason, presi- dent of the College and Institute Educators Associa- tion of B.C., said the closure demonstrates the govern- ment’s attitude toward high- er education. “| think the decision was made strictly on economic grounds without reference to the decision’s impact on the Nelson community,’’ he said. Government officials den- ied David Thompson was being singled out, noted funding to all colleges and institutions were reduced. But Dick Melville, education minister information direc- tor, admitted the decision was based on economics. “Economically it was not. feasible to continue,’’ ‘he said. 2 Few student reps continued from page 1 Gladys Klassen, the coor- dinator for Adult Special Education, says that people who use the college should get involved with the differ- ent planning committees at Douglas, but she admits there isn’t even a student on her Adult Special Education Advisory Committee. Balderstone agrees with administration that it is dif- ficult to find student reps for the planning committees, and says that that’s because this is a two year college and most students don’t feel it’s too important to get involved when they’re only here for a short time. Committe heads have a- greed to step up their efforts to fill the vacant positions and Balderstone says the student society has found one rep, Mark Nonni, for the Administrative Study Committee. Balderstone ad- ded he sits on five different administrative committees himself. Students. interested in working with the govern- ance boards can speak to either their intstructors or Barb Bessey, whose desk is outside room 4911. “We're losing one .major perspective, that of the stu- dent,’’ said Frost,’’ and it’s the student that the college is here for.’’. Balderstone defends his ac- tion. ‘‘What do they expect me to do?’’ he asked. ‘‘Do they expect me to tell West to get out of my office and never come back?’’ “The move is a good idea,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ll be more visible from inside the. concourse.’’ “It’s a dumb idea,’’ said one community _ services staff person. ‘‘Right here we have a lot of student contact but over there we’re not going to be visible.’’ Graydon explains that the reason for the move is that community services ‘were not provided with a proper field space.’’ Before the college split into Douglas -and Kwantlen Colleges, the community services offices were supposed to be on the fourth floor of the New Westminster campus, with other offices at the other compuses, but when Bill Day was appointed presi- dent he decided to move the $50,000 to move offices around Deans upstairs. Community services was then placed, on a temporary basis, in the 2770 area, which bumped admissions upstairs as well. “We knew at the time that this area was going to be too small,’’ said Doerr, ‘but that’s all there was.”’ Doerr says the offices had to be moved because of the growth within the depart- ment. ‘‘In the fall we grew by 23 per cent,’’ he said. Last semester community services provided courses to 9,399 students, more than double the number of stu- dents enrolled in every other program at Douglas College combined. The move will allow the division to gain a little bit more space, nobody is sure exactly how much yet, and neither the student society nor The Other Press should lose any space. Some of the staff at the paper were not too pleased with the decision, especially because administration ne- ver consulted the publishing society. “‘l guess | didn’t deem it necessary,’’ said Graydon. ‘“‘| always assumed, | guess erroneously, that the stu- dent society and Other Press were one and the same.”’ Some of the O.P. staff are more concerned with a waste of valuable education money during the govern- ments restraint program. “We just paid $600 to have our wall fixed,’’ said ad manager M. Mary Palffy. ‘First they spend money to suit the area to our needs and then they spend more money to suit the area to our needs and then they spend more money to suit someone else’s’’ Graydon admits that the move is unfortunate, but feels that it’s necessary. They didn’t realize at the time that it (the community programs offices) was too small for their require- ments.”’ ““We’ve waited 18 months since requesting the space,’’ said Doerr. ‘‘People should know that $50,000 is enough to pay for two teachers for a_ full year,’’ said Palffy, $10 application fee plan scuttled by college board A plan to charge appli- cants $10 just for the oppor- tunity to register at Douglas College was scuttled at the college board meeting Janu- ary 12. Douglas is only one of several colleges in B.C. that have looked at the possibili- ty of an application fee as a means of increasing revenue during the Socred restraint period.