im Chliboyko

 

‘Welcome to local 18 of the CFS,”
pushed DCSS VP External Christa
eters, following last week’s 85.01% Yes
ote in favour of renewing the relation-
ip between Douglas College and the

anadian Federation of Students.
The referendum was marked by both
e requisite controversy for Douglas
ollege referenda and a decent
howing at the polls. Altogether, 1657
Douglas College students cast ballots
t the polling booths set up at the
ollege’s three campuses. ~
(See breakdown.)
Peters was pleasantly surprised at
the showing at the polls. “Voter
rnout was huge,” she said, echoing
e sentiments of many in the college
ommunity who had witnessed
onsiderably smaller numbers at the

David Cochrane

  

 

 
  
   
  
 
   
 
 
  
  
 
  
   
  
  
 
  
  
  
   
  
  
 
 
   
 

  

DT TAWA (CUP) — Funding for

dents eclipsed paying down the.
hational debt and tax reduction as the
humber one spending priority in the
ountry’s first balanced budget in almost

hree decades.

lhe lack of immediate money to help
educe debt loads for students already in
e post-secondary education system.
“What we were looking for in this
udget was something significant to help

avigne, national chair of the Canadian
ederation of Students, said.

Finance Minister Paul Martin’s fifth
udget contained a package of measures
imed at providing students with more
oney when they enter university or
ollege and a more flexible student loan
payment scheme when they get out.
The centrepiece of the budget was the
illennium scholarship fund, Jean
retien’s apparent legacy. The $2.5-
illion fund will provide annual scholar-
hips of up to $3,000 to more than
00,000 students. The fund will dry-up
er just ten years.

Further, as student groups feared, the
ind won't actually hand out any money
til 2000, skipping a generation of
dents who already borrow to pay for
heir education.

aig Saunders

But student leaders are disappointed by

ut people now. We didn’t get that,” Brad

 

   
  
   
  
  
   
   
   
   
    
   
  

CTORIA (CUP) — The provincial
bvernment’s decision to create a new
inistry specifically for post-secondary
lucation has impressed university
Hministrators and students, who are

ed to have a ministry all for
emselves.

They are also glad that Andrew Petter,

portfolio of Advanced Education,
ining and Technology.

“Petter does come from the post-
ondary system,” Maura Parte,
ovincial chair of the Canadian
pderation of Students, said. “We hope
at will lead to a greater understanding
post-secondary pressures.”

Before his election to the provincial -
pislature in 1991, Petter was a law
ofessor at the University of Victoria.
ring his six-year political tenure, he
been minister of aboriginal affairs,

rmerly finance minister, is taking on the

rests, health and, most recently, finance.

A news@op.douglas.bc.ca

e’re back in

Results overwhelming, but procedures a little shoddy

last several student society elections,
often in the low three digit range.

Enthusiasm for the election was
especially evident at Thomas Haney
Centre in Maple Ridge, where almost
half the student body voted.

As for the election itself, Peters said
she thought everything went well,
despite a confrontation at David Lam

campus. “I didn’t like being asked to
leave the campus,” she said, after a
student complained that Peters and
several other pro-CFS personnel were
campaigning aggressively. Security were
eager to throw Peters off campus, but
she appealed the decision and was
allowed to stay.

Kelli Semple, Athletics Representative
of the DCSS, is one of a few
people who didn’t think the
referendum went well. Among
the charges is that there was no
Chief Returning Officer (CRO)
to overlook the vote-counting
and gathering procedures, the
Referendum Rules committee
consisted entirely of pro-CFS
people, campaigning occurred
within the 25-foot no campaign
zone and ballot boxes were

 

 

“Tr’s almost, in a sense, too little too
late,” Paul Black, president of Acadia
University’s student council.

The government says it will set up an
arms-length board of directors to
administer the fund. It didn’t say who
would be on that board, except that
members will come from the private
sector and will include at least one
student. Some students will receive extra
money as early as this year, however.
More than 25,000 full- and part-time
students with children or dependents will
receive grants of up to $3,000 through
the Canada Student Loans Program.

Part-time students will also be allowed
to claim an education credit of $60 for
each month they were attending school,
something previously available only to
full-time students. As well, student
parents will be allowed to claim a child-
care expense while they attend school.

“What we've got here is a positive
indicator, a very good first step,” Hoops
Harrison, national director of the
Canadian Alliance of Student Associa-
tions, said. “But there needs to be a little
bit more of an emphasis on immediate
debt reduction.”

While that immediate debt reduction
wasn't there, the government announced
several changes to the Canada Student
Loan Program.

Starting this year, graduates will get tax
relief for interest payments on their

The new ministry is in charge of BC’s
colleges, universities, private post-
secondary institutions, training programs
and technological initiatives.

Paul Ramsey, the recall-plagued
continue to hold a reduced education
portfolio, overseeing the province's
elementary and secondary schools,

Robert Clift, executive director of the
Confederation of University Faculty
Associations of BC, says splitting the
ministry was a good idea.

“We're pretty happy to have a separate
ministry again,” Clift said, noting the
ministry was only amalgamated in 1995.
“In the superministry of [kindergarten] to
PhD, we tended to get lost.”

David Strong, president of the
University of Victoria, agrees creating the
new ministry is a good move. “It was
certainly a massive portfolio. The sheer
size of the primary and secondary part of
the portfolio was disproportionately
demanding.” :

opened wjthout anyone's

student loans. About one million people
will be allowed to claim a 17% federal tax
credit on their yearly interest payments.
The credit only applies to interest
payments on loans obtained from federal
and provincial loan programs. Students
who get private loans from banks will not
be eligible.

The government also expanded its
graduate interest relief program. Starting
this year, students earning less than
$22,300 will qualify for full interest-relief
for 30 months, an option previously
available only to people earning less than
$20,460.

Beginning in 1999, partial interest
relief will be available for graduates who
have trouble paying back their loans and
earn less than $28,300 a year. Students
earning $24,000 can have the federal
government pick up 75% of their
monthly interest payments, those who
make $26,000 will get 50% relief, while
Ottawa will pick up 25% of the tab for
people earning $28,000.

Graduates who exhaust the 30 month
interest relief period and still experience
repayment problems can now ask the
lending institution to extend the
repayment period from 10 years to 15
years, a move that would reduce monthly
payments by nearly 25% at current
interest rates. If the student still can’t
meet minimum monthly payments, the
interest relief period will be extended

Strong says he hopes the change will
allow schools a greater degree of input
into educational governance, but adds he
expects no special treatment from the
former UVic professor.

Petter says post-secondary accessibility
is his top priority as the new minister.
The province needs more university
graduates, since business is demanding
them, and those graduates will help the
economy grow. Therefore, he says, the
province needs to work harder to make
education a right rather than a privilege.

For the past two years, the provincial
government froze tuition fees in an
attempt to keep education accessible,
Petter says. While a freeze this year will
depend on the provincial budget,
expected in late March, the BC govern-
ment is pressuring the federal government
to restore funding to students through
any fiscal dividend.

“We have been very aggressive in trying
to steward what resources we currently
have in education and add to them by

permission.
Semple
feels as if the
result was
guaranteed
from the start.
“The CFS was
going to get in
no matter
what we did,” said a frustrated Semple.
“The CFS had paid employees cam-
paigning.... We are students, we have
classes, we couldn't man a “No” booth,”
she said, detailing one of her grievances.
Semple said that there were other
instances of poor procedure. “The CFS
people were in student's faces,” she said,
pointing out that CFS volunteers who
werent Douglas College students were
wearing ‘Yes, I voted’ stickers. Other
charges range from scrutineers not
checking properly for ID, to having

from 30 months to 54 months.

For those who still remain in financial
difficulties after those relief measures, the
government will write-off up to 50% of
the federal portion of the student loan or
forgive $10,000 worth of debt, whichever
is lower. Only students with an annual
debt payment over 15% qualify.

Robert Giroux, president of the
Association of Universities and Colleges
of Canada, called the budget “a tremen-
dous package of measures.” Many of the
new initiatives had been suggested by a
coalition of seven national education
groups that was spearheaded by the
AUCC and included both national
student groups.

But Giroux said there should have
been a longer financial commitment to
research and development through
funding for Canada’s three national
granting councils. The Natural Sciences
and Engineering Research Council, the
Medical Research Council, and the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research
Council all saw their budgets restored to
1994-95 levels and will see further small
increases until 2001, bringing combined
funding up to $903-million from the
current $766-million.

“Canada needs to keep pace in the
innovative economy and therefore the
government will have to provide
additional funding in future years,”
Giroux said.

3C creates new education portfolio

making savings elsewhere,” Petter said.
“There is a commitment on the part of
the government to try to put the limited
resources that are available for new social
initiatives into the area of education.”

That commitment is not only the
result of student pressure, though.
According to Petter, the province’s
knowledge-based economy, while still
small, is growing at a rate of 20%
annually. As a result, he hasn’t ruled out
expanded partnership programs to help
schools stretch their funding dollars.

But Petter doesn’t want to see corporate
partnering at the expense of a quality
education. Employers are looking for
well-rounded workers, and that extends
beyond the high-tech sector, he said.

“They're looking for people who have a
good set of values, a broad perspective,
who know how to access new informa-
tion as much as they're looking for any
specific skill set.”

Petter emphasizes the need for a
harmonious coexistence of skills

 

scrutineers open ballot boxes at David
Lam.

Earlier in the week, as well, a pro-CFS
sign was found hanging above the
polling station at David Lam campus,
well within the 25-foot ‘no campaigning’
boundary specified in the CFS’s own
referendum rules,

Peters claimed that this was merely an
oversight, and that the table was moved
into the banner’s area, rather than the
banner being placed maliciously within
the table’s zone.

Students top list of budget priorities

But Rubina Ramji would like to see
more funding now. The head of the
Canadian Graduate Council says the
three granting agencies currently only
fund 17% of all graduate students. The
new money will only increase it to about

20% and Ramji says nothing else in the

* budget offers much help for graduate _

students with limited financial resources.

“This millennium fund will help a lot
of undergraduate students,” she said.
“But by the time they get to graduate
school and if they don’t get money from
the granting councils, they are not going
to find any other kind of funding to get
into:school.”

The budget also tried to encourage
parents to save for their children’s
education. Ottawa will match 20 per cent
of any money parents put into a
Registered Education Savings Plan
(RESP), to a maximum of $400 of federal
money per child each year.

The federal government will also allow
people to withdraw up to $10,000 from
an RRSP without penalty to retrain or
upgrade their education. The government
also promised extra money for youth
employment programs and a tax break for
businesses that hire young people.

In total, the Liberals announced $11-
billion in new spending and $7-billion in
tax relief over the next four years.

development and liberal arts education,
with levels of each varying depending on
the institution.

But not everyone is happy with the
recent changes in cabinet.

According to BC’s Liberal education
critic, the shuffle is really an attempt to
divert the public's attention away from
the upcoming provincial budget. Despite
this, she is looking forward to opposing
both Ramsey and Petter.

“T’'ve got the two best ministers,” April
Sanders said. “I’m ready to put them on
the ropes.”

Sanders also says splitting the ministry
is unnecessary, and any lack of attention
to post-secondary education on the part
of Ramsey likely came as a result of the
time he spent fighting a recall campaign.

“T think whoever is in charge should
have a good idea of what a child is going
into [after high school],” Sanders said. “I

would like them as one ministry.”

 

 

The Other Press March 4, 1998 3