Homophobia Present at Maple Ridge

 

f

Sports

 

Inside This Issue:

Editorials
CUP News pg 4
Arts & Review

pg 9

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pg 7
pg 5

 

ae

Campus of Douglas College

 

by Matthew Martin

There have been allegations of
homophobia, a fear or prejudice of
gay, lesbian or bisexual people, at
the Maple Ridge Campus of
Douglas College.

Angus Adair, Maple Ridge
Member at Large for the Douglas
College Students Society, made the
complaint after several events oc-
curring over the past month.

Adair posted flyers, on behalf
of the newly formed Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual Collective, at Maple
Ridge at the end of February. Soon
after, several of the flyers were
taken down by students.

It was later revealed to Adair
that the students had done so at the
advice of Judy O’Gourman, Rick
Carruthers’ personal secretary.

Carruthers, the chief ad-
ministrator of Maple Ridge,
apologised to Adair for the inci-
dent.

When posters continued to be
pulled down, Adair approached
Ombudsperson Keith Olstrom with

a complaint. Olstrom referred
Adair to Student Society Vice-
President-Internal Jamie McEvoy.

On Monday, March 12th,
Adair met with Carruthers and O’-
Gourman to discuss the problem.

Adair said they told him he
wasn’t doing his job properly.

"She [O’Gourman] towered
over me, shoved memos in my face
and told me I was unable to see the
truth."

"I’ve never felt so intimidated
in my entire life."

Adair was also told that the
threat the Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual
(LGB) collective perceived was
false.

Carruthers also used the word
"fag" twice, even after being told
that the word was offensive alleged
Adair. The LGB community
prefers the word ’gay’.

The whole incident started
when Adair requested the meeting
to ask Carruthers to write a letter in
support of the LGB collective and
the D.C.S.S.’ anti-homophobia

Registration by GPA

 

by Tim Crumley

Starting in September 1991,
students at Douglas College may
find themselves scrambling
through a new kind of registration
system -one which may not be any
better.

The college Administration
has set up a Registration Priority
Review Committee, and its main
purpose is to entertain a proposal to
make Grade Point Average (GPA)
the main factor in determining who
gets priority during registration.

Patricia Angus, Douglas
College’s Registrar and chair of the
committee, says if approved, the
new system will be implemented
for the Fall semester of 1991, and
will take student’s grades from
either the Spring or Summer 1991
semesters, depending on which of
those a student had last attended.

"It [Fall 1991 start date] gives
a chance for the proposal to be dis-
cussed, and if it’s accepted, for stu-

_dents to have the opportunity in

advance for the students to know
that this is the situation they are
going to encounter," said Angus.

However, Vice-President In-
ternal Jaimie McEvoy says the
DCSS has some serious concerns
with the proposal as it stands.

"We don’t think that it effec-
tively deals with the problems of
students not being able to get their
courses," he stated.

Angus feels that although the
system doesn’t clear up all the
problems, it is better than the old
system.

"Academic achievement is

just as good a system of prioritizing °

registration as any other method,"
she said.

"I think there are enough in-
stitutions who have been using it
for an extended period of time to
show that GPA doesn’t dis-
criminate against students."

McEvoy is skeptical about the
system working properly.

"If C average students are
going to consistently have trouble
getting their courses year after
year, then [the system] is not ac-
ceptable," said McEvoy.

"I looked at the Fall registra-
tion of 1988...and I looked at how
aGPA priority would have affected
students in that semester. So we
have a knowledge of how it’s going
to impact," Angus stated.

McEvoy sent Angus a list of
concerns regarding the proposal.
Included in the list was a concern
that underprivileged groups, such
as people who live in poverty,
would suffer the most from the im-
plementation of this policy.

McEvoy included a study from
the Ottawa Board of Education that
showed students who live in pover-
ty score consistently lower than
students who live poverty-free.

campaign on Thursday, March 8th.
O’Gourman told Adair that Car-
ruthers was unavailable to meet
with him.
"However, when a third outside
party requested to meet with Car-
tuthers, he was given a 45 minute
time block by O’Gourman.

According to Adair, he
suspects that O’Gourman thinks he
is gay even though he isn’t, and
this, he says is the reason that he is
being harassed.

"It was nothing short of abuse.
I finally felt what it was like to
experience homophobia."

Carruthers and O’Gourman
could not be reached for comment.

Both College President Bill
Day and the College’s Public Infor-
mation Officer, Bill Bell, stated
that the Administration could not
make any comment about the inci-
dents until they had seen the formal
complaint.

Olstrom is now investigating
the matter.

Proposed

"[The Ottawa Board of Educa-
tion] has found that policies based
on grades tend to discriminate
against minorities. Because it’s
minorities, like Native students,
who are most likely to suffer from
the conditions that lessen their per-
formance in school, by virtue of the
fact that it’s very difficult to per-
form when you’re undergoing
emotional and financial strain,"
said McEvoy.

"If we took every factor that
contributes to grade point
average... we simply don’t have the
ability to do that," Angus stated.

"I am sure that is not the only
factor that contributes to grade
point average. It’s a very compli-
cated area, and I don’t think it’s as
simple as what you’re saying," she
said to this reporter.

"That’s insulting,” stated Mc-
Evoy, "because my memo quite
clearly states it is the leading factor,
and it is the leading factor. That’s
based on scientific research," he
said.

"I sent her the information -
she can take a look at it. Now I
admit it’s a few hundred pages
long, but to send someone a few
hundred pages of information and
then have them say to somebody
else that it’s a simplistic approach
is not good."

Angus emphasizes, however,

contiued on page 3

 

 

Library Patrons

Targets for Thieves

 

by Mathew Martin

Corrie Stuart, the Senior Library Assistant, is convinced the recent
rash of missing wallets, purses and other personal items in the College
library is the work of an organized theft ring.

"It is not random," said Stuart.

The culprit or culprits always use the same method of stealing,
waiting until the person goes to look for a book, and then they strike.
They then take the purse or pack sack and leave the library.

"Nobody ever sees anything" said Stuart.

Security guard Fadi Baydoun says the thefts are "too small to be

organized."

Baydoun said students do not carry enough money to make it worth

the robber’s time.

Baydoun also suggests that students, in order to protect themselves,
keep their belongings with them when looking for books.

Douglas College Student Society Vice-President External, Chris-
tina Steinmann, stated, "If the library wasn’t so understaffed, the library
wouldn’t be such open territory for thieves."

 

 

Rose Grassman Resigns

 

by Ross Bogle

Rose Grassman, Douglas Col-
lege Student Society Treasurer, has
decided to resign for the second
time this semester.

Grassmann made her inten-
tions official by submitting a letter
of resignation to the society dated
March 14, 1990.

In her letter she expressed con-
cern over several issues in the
DCSS. Most of these were centered

around the economic administra-
tion of the society.

One of Grassman’s concerns
was in the area of staff salary ex-
penditures.

"In my efforts not to run a
deficit budget I discovered, for
example, that our staff expendi-
tures have increased from 1988
to 1989 by about 100 percent.
This was not done through

salary increases but
contiued on page 3