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Monday October 23,1989

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Other Press

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students Recieve Raise

VICTORIA (CUP) -- B.C. stu-
dents can borrow between nine and
25 per cent more this year.

But at least one student leader
is calling the changes to B.C.’s stu-
dent aid program a mixed blessing.
"It’s bittersweet," said Canadian
Federation of Students-Pacific
chair Pam Frache. “It’s good be-
cause in the short term students will
have more disposable income over
the year. ae

"It’s bad because the conse-
quences of the increased debt load
that students will carry aren’t being

compensated by the financial aid
system," she said.

"It’s very dangerous for stu-
dents who don’t know what interest
rates will be like when they
graduate and have to start paying
interest."

The spring changes will give
students loans based on the number
of weeks they study, not based on
the number of sessions.

"This is good, especially for
people in colleges and in technical
programs," Frache said. "Some
students’ terms are longer than

Lauren tian

SUDBURY (CUP) -- Lauren-
tian students were back in class
Wednesday Oct. 4, after striking
faculty approved a new three year
contract with the university.

Negotiators for the faculty as-
sociation and adminstration
reached an accord early Sunday
morning after 62 hours of talks.

Faculty voted 77 per cent in
favour of the three year contract
Monday.

The agreement gives the
teachers an independent grievance
proceedure for promotion, tenure
and other contract disputes, as well
as a pay increase.

Laurentian pfofs walked out
September 11, after working
with a_contract sin I
calling for a grievance and salary
increases of 13 and 11 per cent

—MONTREAT (CUP)
teaching assistant in communica-
tions at Concordia University,
Brenda Levert is making as much
money as a McDonald’s cashier.
For almost 25 years, com-
munications TAs have been
making minimum wage (S5.00 per
hour) although university
guidelines say TA’s should be paid

.

over the next two years.

"We made concessions in
terms of salaries,” said faculty as-
sociation official Jean Charles
Cachon. "But that was never the
main issue. We were fighting for
the right to appeal. It’s totally
ridiculous for professors not to
have the right to appeal decisions
that affect their lives."

The administration had

   

others, and their loans should
reflect that."

"Many students are quite
surprised to find what is available,"
said. "I haven’t met anyone who
was upset about getting more
money."

Independent students without
children can receive up to $200 a
week and students with dependents
up to $300 per week.

"This system is far fairer," said
the University of Victoria’s finan-
cial aid manager Nels Granewall.
"We are ina position now where we

Strike

rejected demands for a grievance
proceedure and offered 9 and 8.5
per cent salary increases.

The agreement gives Lauren-
tian professors a 7.5 per cent in-
crease this year, 8 per cent next
year, and between 7 and 9 per cent
in 1991.

Cachon said student pressure
on the administration was a key
factor in getting the administration

can help a student based on the time
they are actually studying.”

An independent student in a 34
week program available for can get
up to $6,800. Students with de-
pendents can get up to $10,200.

Independents in a 39 or 43
week program would receive up to
$7,800 or $8,600, and those with
dependents in the longer programs
are eligible for up to $11,700 or
$12,900.

In 1988-89 the B.C. students
with kids could get up to $8,400
and those without, $6,200.

Over

to respond to union demands.

"I saw most students direct a
lot of their anger at the administra-
tion," he said. "I believe the support

‘we got and the strength of the

students’ response was deter-
minant in the uniyersity’s change
of heart."

Cachon said class schedules
were going to be a bit tighter than
usual, and some professors would
have to forgo research and other
committments to make up for lost
time.

"It’s not a serious threat to
quality or content of the education
students will be getting," he said.

Classes will end two weeks
later than expected, and each term
will be a week shorter. Classes will
end in late December, and mid term
exams will happen in January.

 

Would You Like Fries With Your Term Paper?

between $6.25 and $7.85 per hour.

We’re in there teaching for 15
to 20 hours a week," Levert said.
"We're not just someone you con-
sult -- we do teach. Of course we’re
not professors, but we’re not work-
ing at McDonald’s either.

"These students look up to me.
I mean, I’m not saying ‘Do you

want an apple pie with that?’ I’m
teaching them something about my
subject,” the third-year student
said.

TA’s must prepare material
outside of their labs, but are only
paid for the amount of time spent in
class or with a group.

But some T.A.s are getting

Driftnet Fishing is Killing Our Oceans

by Keitha Stockand

VICTORIA (CUP)

"Its killing our oceans, its kill-
ing everything," says TarynO’-
Gorman of the Victoria-based
Association for Wildlife Aid Re-
search and Education (AWARE).

Liz Gay, president of
AWARE, said "I think People in
Canada are willing to accept en-
vironmental standards as an impor-
tant part of daily life, therefore they
must accept that the environment
and the economy must work hand
in hand to be successful."

Japan, South Korea, and
Taiwanare using drift net fishing to
catch tuna and squid. Fishing ves-
sels deploy the nets, 30 to 80 km
long and 30 feet deep, and draw
them in, trapping anything larger
than a grapefruit, including dol-
phins, whales, turtles and seals.

Most of the "by-catch" dies,
but some are butchered for market
though it may be illegal because
they are protected species.

The nets are invisible to sonar
so if one gets tangled, it is cut loose.
It then drifts around the ocean as a
“ghost net", still catching until it
finally sinks with the weight of the
catch. When the catch rots, it rises
again to continue the cycle.

Every year, for six to seven
months, 1200 to 1500 ships deploy
their nets in international waters.
By 1990 there will be enough
‘ghost nets’ to cicle the world once
at the equator.

Drifttnet fishing depletes fish
stock rapidly, including B.C. sal-
mon as they return from the Pacific
to their spawning grounds.

New Zealand and Australia
patrol their own waters to prevent
driftnet fishing.

AWARE is a small group,
donating their time and money to
help raise awareness and eventual-
ly put a stop to driftnet fishing.

We're small, so we’ ve basical-
ly taken the bureaucracy out of

the organization," said Gay.

Pleose hele me,
stop druft-not

- . of
I ed
Za

AWARE wants to organize an
international conference on the en-
vironment with driftnet fishing as
the central theme.

"We are working towards
holding it in Victoria," said Gay.
The group is looking to raise
$10,000 as seed money for the con-
ference.

AWARE is also circulating a
petition asking the Canadian
Government take steps to halt the
"strip mining" of the Pacific.

together to fight for better salary
conditions.

- Communications TA Danielle
Comeau said some of her co-
workers are preparing a proposal
for a retroactive pay-increase. She
said it will be signed by all the
department’s T.A.s and presented
to the department. "For once we’re
making a fuss about this," Comeau
said. "We should be paid for every
hour we put in. Your work should
be worth something, regardless of
whether or not your department is
chronically underfunded."

Communications department
official Guy Robitaille, said the
department doesn’t have the
money to pay TAs $6.00 per hour.

University official Colin
Waters said the school’s wage
guidelines reflect provincial
norms. The guidelines say after
three years of university study, a
students "employed in work direct-
ly related to their discipline" should
make a minimum hourly rate of
$7.85.

Waters said the standards are
reviewed every year and went up
four per cent last year.

Communcations department
chair Scott Gardiner, said he has
received complaints from the TAs
since he took over in September.
"I’m embarassed about how little
the students are getting paid,” he
said. "But you find yourself con-
strained by a lack of money. Profes-
sors have asked for more

Students who complete their
degrees without delay, and who can
prove they have worked, or tried to
work, in summer time can get any
debt beyond $12,000 forgiven.

But Frache said students with
children and students who were
worked part-time during the year
were less likely to be eligible for
the loan-remission program.

Granewall said students who
do not fit into the independent
category, who live with their
parents or have just completed high
school, still have a great deal of
difficulty getting loans.

Frache said the criteria for in-
dependence discriminate against
students from low-income families
and from B.C.’s interior.

The criteria, for federal loans,
also used to convert half of cligible
students’ loans to a grant say only
students who are married, have left
home for two years or are legally
estranged from their parents are in-
dependent.

But the loan-conversion pro-
gram only applies to students in
their first two years of school.

"So a student from the interior
won't geta loan until third year, but
then they won’t be eligible for the
program," Frache said.

Frache said no matter what
happens to the loan system, post
secondary education won't be ac-
cessible until tuition is abolished.

"Time and time again it’s been
shown that tuition is the major bar-
rier to low-income earners and
other groups who haven’t been at-
tending,” she said.

 

assistance, but we don’t have the
money to pay for more assistance."

He said the Faculty of Arts and
Science has not increased the
department’s TA’s budget for
years.

Concordia’s Psychology
Department pay their TAs $2,250
per semester because they get more
funds from the Arts and Science
Faculty.

Louise LaBelle, a Phd student
in Psychology, has been a T.A. for
the past five years. Working about
10 hours a week, Labelle is making
around S18 per hour. Labelle also
thinks she isn’t making enough
money as a T.A.

"Given the financial situation
at Concordia, I guess it’s satisfac-
tory, but I think I’m worth more,"
she said. McGill’s English depart-
ment hires only graduate students
TAs who work a maximum of 12. -
hours per week. They are each paid
$6,526 per year and receive free
tuition for the first three semesters
of their employment.

Levert said she can’t under-
stand why two chronically

underfunded universities like
Concordia and McGill can have
such high discrepancies in T.A,
wages.

"It’s a shame to find out that
T.A.s at McGill are making so
much more money when we’re
doing the same work with just as
much passion and dedication," she
said.