PAGE 6 September 19, 1985 Big cheese can’t please Cup news Flora MacDonald, federal minister of employment and immigration, heaped roses and nightingales on her Challenge ’85 student job creation program in a meet- ing with the Canadian Fed- eration of Students last week. “She’s the consumate politician,’’ said Barbara Donaldson, chair of CFS, the national student lobby groupe-‘‘She said ‘I’ve never had the honour of running a program that was so well received’ and | said ‘Well, you’ve never been a minis- ter of employment and im- migration before.’ At the meeting, MacDonald invited CFS to the program debriefing three weeks from now, to critique Challenge ‘85 after final statistics come out. “If she’s sincere and she’s listening to what we have to say, then we could get the program changed,” Donaldson said. ‘‘They’re getting ready to do the summer programs again and she’s getting lots of bad press.’’ Challenge ‘85 created 100,000 jobs this summer; according to Employment and Immigration statistics. Of these, 84,500 were Sum- mer Employment Exper- ience and Development (SEED) program jobs. Among the SEED jobs, 67 per cent were ‘‘career-re- lated’’, 31 per cent ‘‘work experience’’. Fifty-seven per “She’s the consumate politician” cent were in non-profit or- ganizations, 33 per cent in the private sector and 33 per cent in municipal govern- ment progrms. The average SEED job lasted 11.7 weeks and paid $4.89 an hour. Challenge ‘85 also provid- ed money for RCMP hiring among other programs. The ministry admitted at the meeting it had no way of knowing if the SEED jobs were related to careers or not. ‘‘If a student said the job was career-related on the application, the ministry assumed it was,’’ Donaldson said. Donaldson is mainly con- cerned that Challenge ‘85 jobs did not provide stu- dents with enough money to survive during the school year. Student aid depart- ments. assume students have work- ed 16 weeks at minimum wage, and automatically de- duct 45 per cent of earnings when calculating how much a student gets. Those students who work- 524-9788 50 - 8th Street, New Westminster 10% Discount On Entrees To Douglas College, Student Card in| most provinces _ ed less than 16 weeks can’t appeal for more aid, Donaldson said. Donaldson also said Chal- lenge ‘85 failed to correct regional employment dispar- ities. ‘‘Because Challenge ‘85 focused on creating jobs in the private sector, it worked best in places with a big industrial base: Toronto and Montreal,’’ she said. Unemployment among re- turning students in New- foundland was down less than one per cent at 27.9 per cent, compared to the national average of 14.4 per cent. Student unemployment was up in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and_ British Columbia, though down slightly in the rest of Canada. CFS Executive Officier John Casola is skeptical of the government’s claim that 85 per cent of students found summer jobs. “| worked at a Canada Employment Centre for stu- dents this summer,’’ Casola said. ‘‘| filled 30 or 40 jobs for the same guy: some for one and half days, some for a few hours. Flora is going to call that 30 or 40 jobs placed.’’ Tenured profs cut Ottawa [CUP] -- Twelve ten- ured professors lost their jobs at the University of British Columbia this sum- mer when government grant reductions forced the uni- versity to cancel programs. “As far as | can recall, it’s the first time tenured pro- fessors have been fired in these numbers in Canada,’’ said Victor Sim of the Can- adian Association of Uni- versity Teachers. Eliminating tenure would have a “‘chilling effect’ upon freedom, of research, he added. UBC was able to fire the professors because of a re- dundancy policy passed by an executive committee of the university’s board of governors. __ This policy allows the administration to fire tenured professors if eye ne ony #1298 includes: lasagna, manicotti, spaghetti, with your choice of sauces. Complete with green salad and sourdough bread. their department or program is eliminated. Two days after the policy passed, dental hygiene and recreation ed- ucation programs were cancelled. “some positions have become redundant” Although the faculty accept the need for a pro- cedure to deal with redun- dancies, they object to the way the administration im- posed the layoffs. The facul- ty association was not con- sulted about who would be fired. Former faculty association president Elmer Orgryzlo said the board policy allows cuts to be so specific they can target one or two faculty members. “Any procedure that gives that much power to the administrators to pick and choose who is fired is inadequate,’’ he said. Sidney Mindess, present faculty association _ presi- dent, said: ‘‘This unilateral action by the president and the board of governors, un- precedented in Canadian universities, constitutes a direct threat to the principle of collegiate decision-mak- ing which lies at the heart of a university.’ Dr. Danile Birch, UBC acting vice-president a- cademic, said: ‘‘There is no issue of academic freedom at all.’” He said while the university regrets that some positions have become re- dundant, it has a duty to meet fiscal and legal obliga- tions. Birch added that over the past two years, more than 60 bargaining sessions with the faculty association have not led to any agreement on procedures. By law, the university may not carry a deficit from one fiscal year to the next so the UBC senate recommended . cancelling the programs to avoid a deficit of $9.4 million. The deficit was caused by the provincial government’s reductions in funding to- wards post-secondary edu- cation. Last year UBC laid off 109 non-tenured faculty and support staff and raised tu- ‘ition fees by 33 per cent to make up a $9 million budget cut. Last week, Vancouver Community College an- nounced it will offer a dental hygiene program beginning in 1986, filling the hole left by the cancellation of the UBC program. College president Paul Gallagher said the college program will be two years long and will graduate at least 20 students per year.