te | The eg Monday, August 27, 1984 Introducing the executive! _| From left to right they are: Alan Zuker- ~ | man, Maple Ridge rep; Gordon Bryan, vice president; Debra Niessen, student rep; Jesse gs new student society Sedhu, ‘hee: i Shane Kennedy. Illustrious president; Linda Hicks, recently resigned; ditto with Gerry . QOikawa; Ron Huml, secretary; and Tom Paine, student rep. Missing is treasurer photo by Sean Valentini! Grant elimination and loan cuts mean financial aid is harder to get Going to college this year might be easier if you don’t apply for a student loan. Recent cutbacks in the Canada Student Loan pro- gram, along with the elim- ination of student grants, means fewer people will be -eligible for | government assistance this year. The applications for stu-- dent aid are ‘‘too personal,’’ says student society pres- ident Jesse Sedhu. Sedhu applied for a loan himself, even though he doesn’t need one, just to see if the stories he had heard about the applications were true. Students have to submit a detailed budget of every dollar they’ve earned and spent in the four months prior to attending school, Sedhu says. : If your parents earn. too much money, and even if you don’t live at home, you could be turned down, he says. ‘The government is doing everything but helping stu- dents.’’ “They don’t take into account the fact your parents may have five other kids to support,’’ Sedhu said. One method being used to help out Douglas College students is a new trust fund being set up by the college’s administration. INSIDE T.O.P. THEN O coved cccesccdcssesercscecsss- PAGE O IG NEWS, «5. cccccccccceeecessss FP Ue 7 Election stuff.........Pages 8 &9 Entertainment...Pages 10&11. | SPOPES ...0.s5s.0sscésenssns5.. OG 15 The student society con- tributed $30,000 at their Annual General Meeting last year. The college is hoping to raise $1. million for the: Douglas College Student Trust fund. “The college’s adminis- tration is doing everything in its power to make education accessible but they have their hands tied,’’ Sedhu said. ‘It’s the ministry that should be trying to make education accessible,’’ he says. Gordon Bryan, student vice president says the min- _ istry is following legislatiure orders to cutback on, edu- cation. The government is using the federal transfer money intended for post secondary education on its mega- _projects like Expo and North- East Coal, Bryan says. Anyone who applies for their loan during registration shouldn’t expect to see any money before October, Sed- hu says. “But for students who apply for loans, the college is deferring your tuition fees until you get your money,’’ he said. Bye bye money i Douglas College’s Autonomous Student Newspaper Other Press 2nd class mail registration pending Volume 17 Issue 1 Fees increase at college by 11.8 per cent Welcome to Douglas Col- iege. It’s going to cost you more this year. by DAN HILBORN 11.8 per cent more to be exact. The college board ap- proved the increase at their June 21 meeting. The in- crease totals $2 for every credit, or about $30 for a full time student. Jesse Sedhu, student soci- . ety president thanked the college board for keeping the increase ‘‘that low in com- parison to the rest of the province.’’ He was referring to in- creases upwards of 110 per cent at other colleges and universities around B.C. Bill Day, administrative president at the college, thanked Sedhu for ’‘under- standing the logic of the situation.’’ Douglas College raised its tuition costs because of a request from the ministry of education. The ministry told the col- lege to raise tuition to cover between 15 and 25 per cent of the total operating bud- get. The increases raises the student paid portion of the budget from 8.6 per cent to 10.5 per cent, well below the ministry's request. “This is somewhat of a victory for all concerned,’’ said Day. Tuition costs are the great- est hinderance for many students, says Sedhu, but last year he ran for student society on a platform saying a 15 per cent hike would be acceptable. Outgoing student pres- ident Sean Balderstone was not happy with Sedhu’s com- ments about tuition during the election. No tuition hike should be acceptable to any student, Balderstone said. Tuition in- creases detract from access- ibility to education, he said. Balderstone’s apparently left wing stance upset stu- dents at the college enough _ toprevent him from running for office again. Several college instructors were surprised to hear Sed- hu had been elected after endorsing a tuition hike but since the election the new president has changed his tune. “1 don’t think students can afford to go to school anymore,’’ Sedhu said earli- er this month. “The college is doing all it can to keep education ac- cessible but the problem lies in the ministry,’’ Sedhu said. The student society has asked the college to try to. keep any future increases within the government’s own six and five restraint pro- gram. : According to the college’s Five Year Plan, approved by the ministry, tuition at Doug- las College should rise by around 28 per cent by 1988. totally opposing any tuition increase is the Canadian Federation of Students. A survey done by the federation several years ago shows how tuition increases prevent the poorly educated and impoverished from ob- taining a post secondary education. CFS has been lobbying the federal government to pun- ish the provinces, including B.C. who currently divert federal funding intended for education. Currenly, legislation al- lows the provinces to spend federal transfer payment in- tended for education and spend the money where ever they choose. CFS is also upset that the funding that isn’t even going to post secondary institutes is being cut back. Sedhu doesn’t think the higher tuition costs will low- er the numbers of students going to Douglas College this year. He just feels it will prevent people with less money from attending.