Scholarships, bursaries and awards: how you can receive them On March 25", the Douglas College Foundation hosted its annual Awards Tea, uniting students who have received grants through the College with the donors who have helped them reach their educational goals. Since its creation in 1985, the Douglas College Foundation has been the main force in fundraising for student aid and administering said funds. This semester alone, Douglas College allocated 80 scholarships and 767 bursaries to its students. Recipients were chosen out of a total 827 scholarship applications and 1,068 bursary applications, to a full worth of approximately $49,500 and $338,680, respectively. Both bursaries and scholarships can be applied for at registrar.douglas.bc.ca by logging in and clicking on financial aid. There are many different awards, scholarships and bursaries available to the students of Douglas College, coming from endowment funds donated from corporations, past employees, graduates, the Douglas Student Union Claire Huang and Chris > music scho and other individuals who support either the College itself because of a personal connection, or education in general. The awards distributed in 2007\2008 reached over $1 million dollars. To receive a bursary, one must meet the basic criteria of a minimum 2.0 GPA per semester, and demonstrate financial need through the Financial Aid application. Awards are the same, with a minimum GPA of 3.0. Scholarships and Awards of Distinction differ from the two former, as they are solely based on academic merit and do not incorporate financial need. Scholarships through the school require a 3.5 GPA and Awards of Distinction ask for a minimum of 3.0. All of this is basic criteria, while certain donors may wish to specify other requirements to their awards, scholarships and bursaries. All also require applicants to be Canadian citizens, permanent residents or convention refugees. Students should talk to their professors about these opportunities as donors frequently choose to specifically award a certain faculty. Recipients are selected each semester by the Douglas College Scholarship and Bursary Selection Committee. 1 OW EDEL RS Ceere) 0180 DSU all candidates forum ends with a little controversy Alessandro lachelli The Douglas Students’ Union hosted its all candidates forum last week. What began as an uneventful exercise in public speaking quickly became a dramatic affair after four questions were asked at the forum by students during the question period portion. The debate truly began over minimum wage. Jerin Mece stated that he did not believe in raising the minimum wage and that it would cause higher unemployment in this economy, ultimately leaving many people in a worse situation. Alessandro Iachelli, a reFresh candidate explained that he thought this idea was ridiculous. Iachelli stated that a higher minimum wage actually increases people’s disposable income, which means that citizens will spend more. Which he felt would be good for the economy and the reason he supports raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour. Controversy emerged again when candidates were asked if a conflict of interest arose if representatives owned a party planning company and worked for the DSU. This year several candidates are in this position. Christine Nieder, candidate for reFresh responded that it was only an issue if representatives “double dipped” by getting paid for both the hours worked on the party for the DSU and the party company. Jerin Mece, Candidate Vote For Change and an organizer with Jam Packed Productions, a party planning company, responded that double dipping had not occurred and that the DSU had only helped Matthew ‘= .¥ Steinbach “tage , news editor od advertise the events and rent out their space. More controversy ensued when the candidates running for the college relations coordinator position were asked about the importance of attendance at college meetings. These candidates were also asked if they felt it was a bad idea to allow someone to run if they had not attended other meetings in the past. Mece admitted he had been removed from the DSU board for lack of attendance, but that he was currently in the process of fighting this removal. Tachelli, the reFresh candidate for college relations stated that this was an issue and one of the main pieces of his platform was attendance. He believed that attending meetings with the College was the only way to strengthen the DSU’s relationship with the College. Some candidates were also caught by surprise when they were asked how groups with currently elected representatives could bring on the new and drastic changes to the DSU that they were promising. Deep Singh, with Vote For Change responded that it could change the DSU by working together as a team and not as individuals. However, Priscilla Bartleman of reFresh took on a much more critical view. She stated that reFresh had only included currently elected representatives that had a positive influence in the past. This was to allow them to finish their work and to aid the new people in moving the DSU forward post-receivership. She believed that their knowledge would be useful in future planning for the organization.