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PAGE 4 March 29, 1985

 

 

SFU fees to increase by 10%

VANCOUVER [CUP]--Uni-
versity of B.C. and Simon
Fraser University students
will have to pay 10 per cent
more in tuition fees next year
for an education that will likely
be worth considerable less.

Boards of governors at both
universities approved the 10
per cent increase recently,
bringing the cost of first year
arts or science at UBC to
$1,275 and at SFU to $1,290.

Last year, UBC and SFU
raised their fees by 33 per cent
and more than 20 per cent
respectively. And SFU admin-
istrators say they want stu-
dents eventually to pay for 20
per cent of the university's
operating costs, which would
require an additional 25 per
cent increase for each of the
next two school years.

The increases in UBC fees
mean some of the university’s
professional schools will be
the most expensive to attend
in the country. For example,
fees for medicine and dentis-
try programs will now reach
$2,000, about, $600 to $700
more than that of the national
average.

The universities also ap-
proved increases in differen-
tial fees for foreign students.
UBC visa students will now
pay 2.5 times the Canadian
undergraduate fee and SFU

visa students will pay 1.5
times.
Student leaders say the

increases will severely curtail
accessibility for students from
lower income backgrounds,

forcing those living in the
province’s interior to seek an
education elsewhere.

“The increase will mean
that students will pay more for
less. Students are not getting
the return they should be,’’
says Debbie Latimer, cam-
paign coordinator for the Can-
adian Federation of Students
and a former B.C. college
student.

“Students will be paying for
overcrowded classrooms and
overworked professors. Why
should we have to put up with
sitting on the floor and losing
our best professors?’’ she
asks. 5

“| know an amazing amount
of students who are leaving
the province. Students who
stay won’t be able to spend
much time on their studies;
they’Il have to work to pay the
rent.’”

Major cuts to UBC’s and
SFU’s budget in the past two
years have forced the univer-
sities to fire staff and faculty
members and kill some pro-
grams. UBC has laid off 190
staff and faculty members,
while SFU has cut the budget
of its Centre for the Arts by
one-third, and eliminated Lat-
in American, Middle East and
African studies, —__ under-
graduate German and Russian
language programs and Span-
ish graduate courses.

UBC’s administration has
asked some of its faculty
deans to justify or else face the
elimination of select pro-
grams, departments and

schools. The ones singled out
so far include the school of
architecture, administration,
adult and higher education
departments, oceanography,
geophysics, astronomy and

religious studies departments
and the family and nutritional
sciences school. —

The B.C. government cut
university funding by five per
cent last year and plans to do

so again next year.

University of Victoria. stu-
dents, still waiting for tuition
fee announcements, expect a
similar fee hike and cutbacks.

Public mischief a just protest

MONTREAL [CUP]--Six pro-
testors arrested in a sit-in last
October are guilty of public
mischief though their cause,
supporting the prison hunger
strike of Squamish Five mem-
ber Doug Stewart, was just, a
municipal court judge has
ruled.

The six, arrested in the
solicitor-general’s | Montreal
office, conducted their own
defence, saying that if they
had not protested, Stewart
would have died in Archam-
bault prison, north of Mont-
real.

Stewart had refused to eat
in protest of being transferred
without warning from a B.C.
jail to Archambault, where he
was unable to communicate
because he cannot speak
French.

‘There was no way we were
going to let Doug die,’’ said
Patricia Moore, one of the
defendants. As evidence she
citied medical
Stewart was in ‘‘grave danger

of suffering irreversible dam-

age to his health--even death’’
if he did not end his hunger
strike.

Windi Earthworm, a West
Coast singer called as a wit-

reports that —

ness, said since demonstra-
tions in Vancouver, Toronto,
Ottawa and London, England
in support of Stewart had not
resulted in any arrests, there
was no reason to proceed with

charges brought by _ the
“avocados of the crown’’ in
Montreal. (Lawyer is
““avocat’’ in French).

Judge Leger ruled that he
was able to consider only the
facts in cases before him, not
motives, and that the sit-in by
definition was an act of public
mischief.

Still, Leger said, ‘‘l am
convinced by your arguments
here today that your motives
were sincere and honourable.
Even, | would say, just.’’

He fined each of the six $50,
with three months to pay.

Stewart was transferred to
Kent penitentiary in B.C. at
the end of November after
solicitor-general Elmer
McKay acknowledged _ that
“all the precise, required
steps’’ were not followed
when the prisoner was moved
to Montreal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

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e Andrew Smith

a Long Di

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Université du Québec, Trois Riviéres,
Québec ‘

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