PAGE 8 March 15, 1985

 

Students march on Victoria

VANCOUVER [CUP] - Thous-
ands of B.C. students are
letting their feet do the
talking.

More than 2,000 University
of B.C. students marched Feb.
19 from the campus to down-
town Vancouver, while 600 of
their counterparts in Victoria
walked to the front steps of the
B.C. legislature Feb. 14 in
protest of eduction cutbacks.

The placard-carrying stu-
dents in Vanouver took part in
what..was called the ‘’Great
Trek’’, a march similar to the
one held in 1922 when thous-
ands of UBC students de-
manded an adequate campus

to house B.C.’s fledgling uni- -

versity. The demonstration in
Victoria was called the ‘‘Dare
to Care’ rally.

Organizers of the ‘‘Great
Trek ’85’’ said the provincial
government should halt its
proposed funding decreases to
universities and that any fur-
ther cutbacks would spell dis-
aster for the quality of edu-
cation in B.C. They said the
demonstration drew the larg-
est number of B.C. students in
recent years.

The government froze’ uni-
versity funding in 1983, cut

-operating grants by five per-

be

~ approached, McGee

cent in 1984 and has hinted at
a similar cut for next year. The
universities have responded
by increasing tuition fees,
introducing differential fees
and limiting enrolment in
certain programs. UBC’s tui-
tion fees jumped 33 percent
last year and may increase
another 10 percent this year.

“‘There’s no question our
university is under attack,’’
Emler Orgryzlo, UBC faculty
association president, told the
rally.

“Student grants are a
thing of the past; student fees
are on a record-breaking rise;
student accessibility is declin-
ing; important programs are
threatened with closure; class
sizes are reaching intolerable
levels; university autonomy is
being eroded,’’ he said.

Glenna Chestnut, one of the
organizers and UBC’s student
council president, said anoth-
er great trek will be held in the
fall, after students have col-
lected signatures on a petition
over the summer condemning
the cuts. The petitions will:
then be brought to the govern-
ment’s attention.

In Victoria, protestors called
on cabinet ministers to speak.
to the rally, but no one
appeared. B.C. universities
minister Pat McGeer said he
was in his office during the
rally and|had not been invited.

“| didn’t even know they
were here.’’

Asked if he would have
spoken to the students if
r replied:

oo toe

“Who knows? Who knows?’’
Education minister

Heinrich said he was meeting

with Vancouver high school

students at the time and could

Jack not leave for the rally.

Speakers on the legislature
grounds denounced what they

called the government's ‘’im-
moral’’ lack of funding and
disregard for education.

The demonstrators included

Volunteers not jobsat

VANCOUVER [CUP] - There
will be plenty of jobs for B.C.
students this summer and
next at Expo ‘86, the giant
world’s fair — but no money.

B.C.’s Social Credit govern-
ment plans to fill 20,000 posi-
tions preparing and putting on
the fair with volunteers. Al-
ready, Expo ’86 has 3,000
volunteers across B.C., com-
pared with only 400 paid staff.

Last summer 18.9 percent of
B.C. students who were plan-
ning to return to school were
out of work. Only Newfound-
land, at 28.7, had a higher
rate.

The vast majority of the
fair’s paid positions will be at
minimum wage: $3.65 per
hour, according to the B.C.
Federation of Labour.
Kube, president of the feder-
ation, said this will only
benefit the government.

“How will the students be
able to pay tuition and living
expenses for the year when
they can barely earn enough

money to survive the sum-°

mer?’’ Kube asked.

“This is supposed to be an
economic boom for everyone
in the province, yet the worker
is being left out,’’ he said.

Donna Morgan, executive
officer of the Canadian Feder-
ation of Students - Pacific
branch, | agrees students
should be paid more. She said

Degrees no gu

VANCOUVER [CUP] - Un-
employment rates have sur-
ged dramatically for graduates
of the University of British
Columbia’s technical and pro-
fessional programs, a new
survey shows.

Hardest hit were agricul-
ture, nursing and accounting
students who have unemploy-
ment rates of 23.3, 25.8 and
22.6 percent respectively. In
1980, only four percent of agri-
culture graduates and 4.5 per-
cent of accounting graduates
were without jobs while every
graduating nurse found work.

The survey, conducted by
UBC’s counselling and re-
sources centre, documents the
post graduate activities of
nearly 90 percent of the 3,777
1984 graduates from 21 facul-
ties and schools.

Said counselling centre dir-
ector Dick Shirran: ‘’We’re
trying to give people a real-
istic idea of what students do

NDT De ae SRE a ™
SRN | AI Tema

Art a

PRESS RET RL TE 7 BLE R pee UP AE ty

CFS did a study last year
which found that the average
student would need to earn
$15 an hour over the summer
to cover school year costs.

As it is, the province esti-
mates it will lose $311 million
staging the world’s fair.

 

 

with various types of de-
grees.”’

Other hard hit faculties
include forestry and applied
science with the unemploy-
ment rate jumping to 21.1 per-
cent from 1.6 and 0.9 percent
respectively. Commerce stu-
dents, who only had a 2.8 per-
cent 1980 unemployment rate,
now face a 17.4 percent rate.

Shirran attributes the high |

unemployment rates to the
economic recession. He warns
against generalizing from the
survey because trends in em-
ployment are cyclical.

“Students have to be care-
ful not to give up in their field
and not react too quickly to
surveys such as this,’’ Shirran
said.

Arts had a surprisingly low
unemployment rate in the
survey —8.8 percent—which is
actually an increase from the
1980 rate of 3.2 percent.
Graduates in dental hygiene,

PATTEM OU ni

Expois distributing an appli-

cation form for volunteers that
asks for information about the
individual, including educa-
tion, volunteer experience,
“‘memberships’’ and personal
references.

Brad Philley, Expo public

rehabilitation medicine, phar-
macy and landscape architect-
ure all found jobs.

Shirran said the survey does
not necessarily indicate better
job prospects for arts stu-

 

students from Victoria, Van-
couver, Nanaimo and Will-
iams Lake and a sprinkling of
local high school students.

Xpo

relations officer, said he could
not comment on wages for
those who will be paid at the
site. ‘‘Wages and pricing are
being done by private com-
panies and | do not know when
they will be made public,’’
Philley said.

rantee for employment

dents. ‘‘The survey means
graduates of engineering, ap-
plied sciences and _ forestry
wait around for a job in their
field but arts graduates take
just about anything.’’

Education -'Technology
Speaker’s Forum

At BCIT, the government is
already drastically cutting the
number of instructors with the
hopes of having more students
learn through new methods
using high technology.

Technological change will
mean _ significant differences
for B.C. students in the com-
ing years, Dr. Sandy Dawson
of the Education faculty of
Simon Fraser University will
be giving a lecture on Educ-
ation and Technology on

LE SSTOREIE s ASC RE MOSERE

Thursday, March 21 in Room
2203 at Douglas College.

If you are interested in
finding out how technological
change could affect your edu-
cation, attend this meeting,
sponsored by the Douglas
College Speakers Forum Asso-
ciation.

Education and Technology
will take place in the small
lecture. theatre of the New
Westminster campus at-12:00
p.m., Thursday, March 21.

Ce ee