taking bullets since 1976 Volume 18 Number 11 Administration to Attend Bash in Kelowna By Jason Kurylo Graduating students be warned: Your grad date has been moved from June 16 to June 15, to accommodate DC Administrators’ attending a party in Kelowna. Official notification of the change is scheduled to have been mailed out by the time this paper goes to print. Unofficial notification has been attempted, in the form of tack- board notices, and re- quests that depart- ment heads make gen- eral announcements to classes. Unfortunately, this situation has greatly affected at least two students more so than others. Debbie Wesley’ and Wesley: "I was furious when. | found out." The Official Newspaper of Douglas College Grad Date Changed; No Notice Given Posters that time, Atkinson told them the decision had been made a only a few days before. As far as Wesley’s concerned, that’s a lie. “Obviously, they knew in January, as shown by this letter,” said Wesley. “And with decisions taking so long to be made up there, they probably knew as early as December.” Both students have had dif- ficulties making arrangements esley’s mother ad to change onths-old flight Flannery: Flannery’s Brother can y brother from Toronto can no Shannon Flannery are Psych Nursing Students at Dou- glas College, and thus have been in- volved in off-campus practical work experience for most of this semester. On Feb. 26, Wesley happened upon an unofficial memo addressed to Flannery, who had volunteered at the last grad ceremony. The communiqué, dated Jan. 27, was from Graduation Coordinator Leah Ponting, and clearly stated the change of date. Strangely, Flannery never received any such letter, and was only alerted to its existence when Wesley told her about it. Both students separately ap- proached Al Atkinson, the Dean of Educational and Student Services. At DC Student Takes Julia Chen: "| hope to play my best for Douglas College." longer attend the ceremony. Atkinson is concerned with any difficulties faced by students as a result of the new plans, but says there is no chance of re- scinding the decision. “The only person that can officially hand out the diplomas and certificaates is Karen Henderson, the Chairman of the Board. She can’t very well do that if she’s not here at the col- lege.” The reason that Henderson, and most administators, will not be here on June 16, is that they will be in attendence at the an- nual meeting of The Advanced Education Council of British Co- lumbia, held this year in Kelowna. The opening ceremonies begin at 6:30 that evening, and the confer- ence goes until midday June 18. Ponitng took over the Grad Coordinator position in mid-Janu- ary. She called the Administration Office to routinely confirm the date of the grad. At that time, she was told the 16th was out of the ques- tion, as the Admin.’s time was al- ready booked for that day. Ponting then approached Atkinson, asking what she should do. At that point, Atkinson told her to rebook the grad for another day. “T must have found out that first week I was here,” said Ponting. “I wouldn’t have sent out that memo unless I had already finished rebooking everything.” ~ June 16, listed in the College Calendar as the grad date, was de- cided upon in spring ‘93. Accord- ing to Atkinson, “this is the first time we’ve ever changed the date as is listed in the Calendar.” Atkinson stands by his state- ment with regards to a mid-Febru- ary decision date. Officially, this is true. According to minutes, a man- agement committee voted to sanc- tion the grad change on Feb. 1. It wasn’t given to the Board until Feb. 17. In fact, the host of the Kelowna meeting didn’t officially announce the dates for the conference until the -first week of February. Officially. However, someone somewhere must have known of the crossed dates well before then. Said Flannery: “Mr. Atkinson said, “You can appeal the decision if you want to, but you won’t win.’” Wesley agreed, saying Atkinson used those exact words to her. Wesley is livid. “I don’t care what Al Atkinson’s doing or what anybody else up there in those little offices are doing. This is our gradu- ation, not theirs. We’ ve worked two and a half years to get here, and now they decide to change our date, not tell us, and not let us know.” Atkinson encourages students with concerns to contact him at his office. The phone number is 527- 5385. “Graduation is what this col- lege is all about. This situation is unfortunate, but it was unavoid- able.” 2nd ational Title By Jason Kurylo Meet Julia Chen. At first glance, this polite, shy, and unassuming 24 year-old wouldn’t immediately inspire the words, “Female Athlete of the Year.” Last Friday, at the Douglas College Athletics Awards Cer- emony, she was honoured with that exact title. And deservedly so. Chen, for the second year in a row, has brought home to Douglas the Women’s Singles Gold Medal from the Canadian National Colle- giate Badminton Tournament. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to make the trip to the East Coast, where this year’s tournament took place. The only Douglas com- petitor to qualify for this year’s na- tionals, Chen was worried about the social aspects of such a jaunt. Once there, she had no on- court hesitations. She won the fi- nal game of the competition 11-0, 11-0. Not exactly a polite, shy, and unassuming win. Chen modestly turns talk away from her back-to-back titles. Due to her past experience playing for the Chinese National Team, she doesn’t really consider the college title all that big a deal, personally. More of aconcern, challenge-wise, is her course-load here. “T am working hard, very hard. I have to work hard, to stay.” Chen is currently on a student visa from her homeland China, and hopes to stay. “I hope I can play my best for Douglas, then maybe someday for Canada.” Thank you, Julia, and good luck with everything. April 8, 1994 to Blame Gundrum given the boot for illegal ads by Daniela Zanatta As you know, from March 29 to April 6, Douglas College held elections for the DCSS executive. While you were out vot- ing, you may have noticed Rick Gundrum’s name crossed off the bal- lots. The reason for this can now be ex- plained. One of the DCSS by-laws states that all campaigning must stop at least 10 hours before the scheduled polling time. Unfortunately, Gundrum failed to re- move all of his posters and thus was dis- qualified. A controversy arose when it came to light that other nominees had failed to remove all of their campaign posters but were not disqualified. One reason that was given for this was that Gundrum left almost 35 per- cent of his posters on the wall, whereas Troy Townsend, the nominee for presi- dent, left less than 5 percent of his cam- paign posters up. All campaigning is supposed to stop by the designated time sO as not to influence voters. On April 7, an emergency meeting was held by the DCSS Representative Committee due to a controversy with the election procedures. The Rep Com- mittee is comprised of the Executive Of- ficers: President, Treasurer, Vice-presi- dent External, Vice-president internal, the Maple Ridge Member at large and the Speaker; and the various members representing programs and services. The meeting was called to discuss proper policy and procedures regarding the elections. The main topic of discus- sion was the appeal process and amend- ing it for this and future elections. The nominees have a chance to make an ap- peal, within 72 hours of the unofficial election results being posted, to the Appeal Board on any decisions that have been made. At this time it is expected that Gundrum will appeal. As Gundrum is presently the Interim Vice-President ‘In- ternal, he will be required to relinquish his position to the nominated candidate, Cheryle Jones, if the election results are declared official without an appeal be- ing made. At press time the Unofficial election re- sults are: President: Troy Townsend Vice President Internal: Cheryle Jones Vice President External: Dave Seaweed Treasurer: Julian Smit Maple Ridge Member at Large: Gayle Ryan Pending the outcome of any appeals, these results will become official April 11 at 2:30 pm. The candidates will take office September 1.