THE

October 5th, 1984

 

   

Douglas College’s Autonomous Student Newspaper

OTHER PRESS

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Volume 17 Issue 5

 

Canada’s national student lobby
_ group plans to push the new Tory
government for more job creation
programs to help thousands of stu-

dents who failed_to find work this
summer.

Jean Wright, Canadian Federation
of Students researcher, says CFS will
lobby prime minister Brian Mulroney

and his newly appointed cabinet
ministers in a bid to ensure adequate
- funding is allocated to unemployed
students

Wright says the Tories’ promise of a
$285 million tax incentive scheme
encouraging businesses to hire young
people is not enough. She says the

problem of student unemployment
must be dealt with now because it has
_ reached alarming proportions.

In July, 180,000 Students were still
- desperately searching for work. The
job market was especially grim in
~ Newfoundland: and-B.C., where an
estimated 28.7 per cent and nearly 19
__ percent respectively were without
jobs.

Although the figures dropped slight-
ly in August, Wright says they do not
include the ‘‘hidden unemployment’’-

those who gave up looking after a
- futile search. About 135,000 students
were unemployed last month.

Wright estimates that thousands

will either abandon the idea of going
back to school or rack up heavy debts
from student loans and money bor-
_ rowed from parents this year.

“Students are caught in a vicious

| World Council

GENEVA

The World Council of Churches has
given $200,000 to three black organiza-
tions fighting South African white

minority rule.

About $100,000 of the money, raised
by anti-racist groups in Canada and
other countries, went to the marxist
South West African Peoples Organiza-
tion, fighting for the independence of
South West Africa.

_ Salmon treaty

Salmon treaty negotiations will re-
sume in December. U.S. President
Ronald Reagan won approval from
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and
| phoned the good news to Washington

~ Govenor John spellman.

Salmon have been suspected of
mining West Coast ports to protest
agreements between Canada and the
U.S.

  
 
    
   
   
 
     

 

 

circle. T ey go-to school to get a good
job, but now they need a good job to go
back to school,’’ she says.

The Tories’ pledge of $285 million to
youth is well below Liberal and NDP
promises, who offered up to $1 and
$1.5 billion each. And the Conser-
vative scheme will likely fail, critics
say.

Wright and unemployment activist
Hugh O’Reilly say the proposal fav-
ours large corporations instead of
small businesses, where most students

are traditionally hired.

“‘Small businesses can’t afford to
wait until the end of the year for a tax
rebate. Their cash flow isn’t large
enough. And this policy is hard to
monitor,’’ Wright says.

O’Reilly, a member of the Ottawa
and District Labor Council unemploy-
nent committee, a group of people
concerned about Ottawa’s 35,000 un-
»mployed, added the few jobs created
vill unlikely be socially useful.

“Two hundred and eighty-five mil-

CES to push for job creation

ion sounds like an incredible amount
of money to the average person. But in
reality it’s not that much and the
program just won’t work.”

O'Reilly says the Liberal .govern-
ment proposed a similar scheme
during the 1979 election campaign.
The Conservative party then argued
strenuously against the idea, saying it
would not help Canada’s demoralized
youth find suitable jobs.

“It’s been tried before and it didn’t
work. Clearly it won’t work again.’’

Formula funding begins

Formula funding is the mechanism
that the provincial government uses to
determine how post secondary institu-
tions are funded. The formula is an

by NORAH HOLTBY

 

arithmetic device which takes into
account all of the factors that influence
the cost of maintaining a program.

The College Institute Educator’s
Association of B.C. has been strongly
opposed to the formula since it was
implemented last year.

‘“We are not opposed to the idea of
formula funding, but this particular
formula does present a problem.”
CIEA president Jack Finnbogason told
the Other Press.

The formula is based mainly on the
number of students enrolled in a
program and the weight or cost of
running a particular program. The

problem lies in the fact that each
program given a dollar value deter-
mined by the provincial government.

This dollar value does not neces-
sarily represent the cost of running the
program in so much as it represents
which programs the government feels
should be given priority.

As a result, post secondary institu-
tions have begun to offer more of the
higher priority programs in order to
get more funding, while cutting out
lower priority programs. The priorities
set down by the provincial government

don’t always reflect the needs of the
community.

Traditionally there has not been a
standardized funding mechanism in
B.C. In Ontario there is a similar
formula used to fund universities.

According to Mr. Finnbogason, the
standard of education drops as a result
of this system. Because the funding is
based on enrollment, instructors be-

come reluctant to fail students in case
their funding is cut. Crowding also
becomes a serious problem, particu-
larly in community college programs
that depend upon a lot of instructor-
student contact for success.

In addition to formula funding, the
provincial government has introduced
a five year plan which will see the
operating budgets of post secondary
institutions cut, while services and
productivity are expected to rise 5 per
cent per year.

“This creates a death spiral,’’
Finnbogason said. ‘‘Institutes begin
laying off faculty to save money. They
have fewer instructors so they have to
enroll fewer students. As a result their
budget is cut and they are forced to lay
off more faculty.’’

He went on to say ‘It is our
hope that they aren’t serious about
this. If they are then the small
institutions in this province are on a
death march.’’

Super sniffer bomb buster

A Concord, Ontario company that
specializes in designing and building
scientific instruments has constructed
a prototype of an electronic bomb

 

by PAMELA TAMES

 

sniffer designed to be more sensitive
and reliable than other bomb sniffers
on the market.

The bomb = sniffer was _ initially
designed by the National Research
Council for the federal Department of
Transport. The company, Scintrex
Ltd., has honed the design into a
commercially workable prototype. If
the prototype meets the Ministry of
Transport’s rigid specification Scintrex
will be awarded a contract next year to
produce 40 bomb sniffers that will be
used to sniff out bombs in airplanes
and other possible terrorist targets
such as the House ot Commons or
nuclear power installations.

The bomb sniffer, called EVD-1 (for
Explosives Vapour Detector), can de-

tect and quantify trace amounts of
vapours given off by explosives. Part
of the machine, a small, battery-oper-
ated wand-like device, is u to
collect an air sample. The wand,
containing a glass air collector, is then

   

trillion parts of air.

placed in the suitcase-sized analyzer,
which gives a digital reading of the
contents of the air sample in two
minutes. The device is so sensitive it
can detect a few parts of vapour per