aig Saunders and Jamie Woods

 

ICTORIA (CUP) — Thanks to
counting changes and an inflationary
crease, BC’s budget gives a little more
universities, colleges and students.
While the overall budget for the
inistry of Advanced Education,

aining and Technology increased by
7%—approximately the projected rate
inflation—a shuffling of figures allows
ra total of $40-million in new

nding for schools and student

ancial aid.

Advanced Education Minister Andrew
btter already announced these funding
creases in a series of public appear-

hces following his appointment in
pbruary. The announcements included
otal of $26-million to colleges and
iversities to offset inflation and create

raig Saunders

 

CTORIA (CUP) — Establishing
bllegial governance at British Colum-
as Open Learning Agency could prove

be a challenge for the province's
culty associations.

Provincial faculty groups are riding
gh after successful negotiations with
Hministrators at the soon-to-open
echnical University of British Colum-
a. The faculty groups were able to
btain concessions addressing concerns
bout the lack of a traditional tenure
stem and an academic senate at the
iversity.

The groups are now looking at BC’s
pen Learning Agency (OLA), as well
the Royal Roads University. They
ant to get something resembling an
ademic senate established at the
stitutions, as well as regulations to
eserve academic freedom and tenure
tems.

“We have been concerned about
Fademic governance at OLA,” Ed
bvalle, head of the College Institute
ducators’ Association, the faculty union
t BC’s 22 colleges, said. He adds that
e existing structure does not meet
fandards set out by the province for
ther a college or a university.

The association plans to continue to

   
 
  
 
  
   
  
    
  
 
 
  
  
 
   
 
   
  
  
  
  
 
 
  
  

Police criticized for
reatment of acitivists

lex Bustros

 

COUVER (CUP) — A University
British Columbia student charged
th one count of mischief has accused
e Vancouver Police Department of
aging a war against social activists.
Jesse Scott, a 19-year-old philosophy
ajor, was arrested March 22 for
llegedly scrawling on a Royal Bank
indow with glass chalk during a rally in
te January protesting student debt.
The arrest, which took place seven
after the January protest, was
ade at a Vancouver's Canadian military
ill hall just prior to an anti-war rally.
Scott says he believes the real purpose
the arrest was to scare off the anti-war
otestors.

“My arrest was an act of intimida-
pn,” he said. “It’s scary when [the
blice] have information on you and can
e it when they want.... It seems like a

news@op.douglas.bc.ca

3C budget shines down on education

2900 new seats, and $14-million more
for student loans.

“T feel very positive,” Petter said.
“[While] we have cut substantially in
other areas, we have increased [funding]
in health, education and social spending.

“University spending will go up more
than it has in the last two years,” he said.
“There are no miracles in this, it’s just a
matter of priorities.”

Petter’s positive outlook is shared by
the province's largest student group, the
Canadian Federation of Students, who
are riding high after students won a
tuition fee freeze in March.

“[The freeze] sends a message to
institutions that tuition fee increases are
not an ongoing source of revenue,”
Maura Parte, provincial chair for the
federation, said.

“From the perspective of our sector,

pressure the government to change the
college’s administrative structure, but has
not made any firm plans for action at
the institution itself.

But if past experience is any indica-
tion, faculty groups could face a tough
challenge at OLA. In June, Jaap
Tuinman takes over the position of
president at the young distance educa-
tion school.

Tuinman is currently a vice president
at Memorial University in St. John’s,
where he is known for having a rocky
relationship with both the faculty
association and the university senate.

“The relations have been difficult, to
pick a mild word,” John Bear, head of
Memorial’s faculty association, said. “In
1995-96 we had an extremely confron-
tational negotiation around the
collective agreement.”

Tuinman agrees that relations between
the two sides are rocky.

“The relationship between the faculty
association and the university has been
strained,” he said. “The faculty associa-
tion is a fairly young association, and the
collective agreement environment is still
new to both parties, and there have been
some growing pains.”

In another recent dispute at Memo-
rial, Tuinman accused the university's
senate of incompetence, but later said

war on activists.”

But according to Anne Drennan,
spokesperson for the Vancouver Police
Department, Scott’s arrest was due to
chance rather than an orchestrated
police campaign.

On January 28, Scott was one of
1500 protesters in downtown Vancouver
who participated in the National Day of
Action against student debt.

“We had an officer videotaping the
demo,” Drennan said, “which is
standard in these demonstrations.”

The videotape, she says, captured
several protestors perpetrating acts of
“vandalism.”

Seven weeks later, the officer who
filmed the Day of Action protest spotted
Scott at the drill hall and, after recogniz-
ing him as one of the protestors on the
videotape, arrested him.

When asked why Scott wasn't arrested
earlier, Drennan replied, “There was no
opportunity. There were over 1000

it’s hard not to be complimentary to the
government for what it’s done,” Keith
Reynolds, spokesperson for the College
and Institute Educators’ Association,
said. “There's always more that could be
done, but compared to what’s happened
everywhere else in the country, BC’s
done an astonishing job.”

Reynolds’ group represents the
province’s 22 colleges and university-
colleges. Those institutions will receive
funding to create 2050 of the 2900 new
post-secondary seats for students that
the province has premised to create. The
remaining 850 will be created at the
province's six universities.

Of the $26-million in new operating
funds, $17.5-million will cover the new
seats. Of the remaining $8.5-million,
$3.8-million will go to the new
Technical University of BC, and $4-

pen Learning Agency woes

his choice of words was unfortunate.

“He has, on occasion, exploded at the
senate,” Bear said.

According to Bear, the experiences at
Memorial indicate that Tuinman may
not be favourably disposed towards the
demands of some groups, including the
college teachers’ association and the
Canadian Association of University
Teachers (CAUT).

Lavalle says his organization will
present their concerns to Tuinman, and
will act according to his response. He
says they would prefer to negotiate, like
CAUT and the Confederation of
University Faculty Associations of BC
(CUFA/BC) did in the TechBC dispute,
if that is an option.

“If he decides he wants to be a
cowboy, then we'll see,” Lavalle said.

The TechBC negotiations took place
in the context of a CAUT-CUFA/BC
boycott of the institution, during which
they refused to recognize the institution
and asked academics to refuse appoint-
ments to it.

Tuinman declined to comment on the
structure of OLA, saying he is not yet
familiar enough with it, and would
prefer to wait until after his June 15
appointment. But he is not opposed to
discussions, he says, and has already met
with some faculty members at the

people [at the January rally]. The officer
couldn't get a chance to arrest him.”

This explanation doesn’t satisfy
Milton Smith, the lawyer representing
Scott.

Smith says the police know full well
the mischief charge will probably be
thrown out of court. The purpose of the
arrest, he continues, was not to win in
court, but rather to scare off potential
protestors.

“It’s a way of subverting the justice
system,” he said. “[The police] use their
powers to punish someone without
going to trial for exercising their right to
exercise freedom of speech.”

Smith says he is also concerned with
police filming protestors at rallies like
the one last January.

“It’s incredible that our tax dollars are
being used to survey groups engaged in
perfectly legal activities,” he said.

million will go to existing schools to
help offset inflation and make up for
revenue that could have been obtained
through a tuition fee hike.

According to Gerry Della Mattia,
spokesperson for the Advanced Educa-
tion Council of BC, this is particularly
good news for the colleges.

“We're funded per FTE [full-time
equivalent student],” he said, noting that
gaining 2050 seats will help the schools
substantially. “It will be an infusion of
new money. We have been held at
constant dollars the last few years, and
have had to eat inflation.”

The ministry’s budget includes a cut
of almost $34-million in debt owing on
capital expenditures. When the govern-
ment authorizes a new building at a
school, it loans the money required for
payments to the school. As a result, each

institution.

“I’m open to discussion on anything,”
Tuinman said. “Always have been,
always will be.”

“We hope he sees the wisdom of
working together in this province,”
Robert Clift, head of CUFA/BC, which
represents the province's faculty
associations, said. “As we showed with
TechBC, there are ways to be the
innovative institution with these
academic [standards] coexisting.”

Provincial faculty groups indicate they
are willing to discuss alternatives at both
OLA and Royal Roads.

Tuinman says he accepted the
position at OLA because he has a long
history of working on open learning

institution carries a deficit. Because the
government is centralizing those debts
and amortizing them over the lives of
the buildings, it allows for a substantial
annual savings.

Overall, the government is budgeting
a $95-million deficit, despite a promise
last year to balance the budget. Agricul-
ture and Food will see a 23% increase in
their budget, but most of that money is
earmarked for poor crop performance.
Dennis Streifel’s Fisheries ministry is
probably the biggest winner, with its
19.9% increase.

Hardest hit are resource and environ-
ment departments which, with the
exception of Agriculture and Fisheries,
all saw cuts ranging from 3 to 20%.

projects, wants to see improved access to
post-secondary education, and likes the
newness and growth potential of the
institution.

“T’ve written and spoken about the »» |
fact that I feel traditional universities do
not respond well to changing needs,” he
said. “Open education is not always well
understood in traditional universities.”

During his tenure at Memorial, the
school increased its open learning spaces
to 12,000 course spaces, or about 2,000
full-time equivalent students. Prior to
his posting at Memorial, Tuinman was
dean of education at Simon Fraser
University in Burnaby, B.C. He was at
SFU from 1976-91.

 

_

student society.

Darryl Flasch, by 8 votes, 211-203.

ballots.

Christa Peters.

school.

 

Douglas ata
x" C@...at a glance, it appears to
be a large, red brick building,

DCSS election results in, unofficially
The results for the spring DCSS elections are in, and after one set of
recounts, the unofficial results show a number of upsets within the

Dave Seaweed, former VP External & Internal, beat out Jaimie
McEvoy by 10 seats, 187-177, for the position of president. There
were 69 spoiled ballots on the presidential ticket.

For the position of VP Internal, Laura Selman was elected over

Elsewhere on the ticket, Amanda Wheeler beat out Kelli Semple for
the position of VP External by a count of 204-158, with 67 spoiled

Some of the races, however, were so close that a recount was ordered.
At one point after the counting on Friday, Seaweed was ahead of
McEvoy by one vote. The ballots were recounted on Monday.

The results, however, are unofficial, cautioned current VP External

The complete list of the results will be posted around the campus.

Parking tickets for cherry-pickers
Douglas College parkade employees were handing out tersely-worded
letters to idling drivers Monday, cautioning them not to block the
streets leading up to the parkade in a campaign which began this week.
According to the letter, students, staff and faculty who are waiting their
turn for the parkade will targeted by the New Westminster Police
Department if they continue to block the two streets approaching the

The problem appears to be at peak times, before 10 o'clock and 12
o'clock classes during the week. At times there are dozens of cars
waiting for the parkade to clear out, and the line occasionally stretches
the length of the block. The police claim that the move is an attempt to
clear the streets for the passage of emergency vehicles. No word on
whether or not any tickets have been passed out yet.

made largely of concrete...

 

 

 

 

The Other Press April 1998 3