The Other Press

October 14, 1986. Page 3.

 

 

   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
   
   
    
  
   
   
  
 
   
 
   
   
  
 
 
    
    
  
   
    
   
   
    
   
  

VANCOUVER (CUP) - The

average debt load for a
University of British
Columbia student _graduat-

ing this year has skyrocke-
‘ted to $15,000, an increase of
$12,000 since 1984.

And students who borrow
the maximum loan amount
for a four-year program face
a debt load of $32,000, in-
‘cluding interest payments.

Byron Hender, UBC’s
wards and financial aid offi-
‘cer, says the provincial So-
ial Credit government is
allowing students to borrow

increasing amounts of
money, adding to an
already enormous debt
levels.

The Socreds eliminated

the grants portion of the

Socreds

FV ANCOUVER
Socreds make

(CUR) S <
lousy dates.

And voters should know
that.

That’s the opinion of
students who organized a

sit-in at former premier Bill
‘Bennett’s office last year and
met with the post-
secondary education minis-
ter Russ Fraser in March.
Agnes Sauter and Brian
Shaw were members of the

Student Issues Action
Committee, which
organized 25 Okanagan

last October and November.

| Now they are warning
voters in the provincial elec-
that both Fraser and
used media  pub-
icity to give the impression
of addressing students con-
erns while doing nothing.

During the sit-in,
tudents called on Bennett
o-attend a public meeting at
Okanagan College to dis-
uss student aid, _ post-
econdary funding and the

losure of - the David

ompson University

ntre in Nelson.

Bennett agreed to a
reparatory meeting Nov.
11, where he told students
d local media it would

e only ‘two minutes’ to
et up the public forum.

That public meeting never
1appened.

“Bennett co-opted us
e November
aid Shaw,

at
meeting,”

now a jour-
student at
ancouver’s Langara
ollege.

: “He tumed it into a big

provincial student  assist-
ance program in 1984, and
have made no plans _ to
redress B.C.’s dismal state
of student aid since Bill Van-

der Zalm was swept to
power in August.
Provincial funding for

student aid has sunk from
$33 million in 1982 to $12.5
million in 1986. British
Columbia is the _— only
province that does not offer

non-repayable bursaries as"
part of it’s student aid
program.

UBC student council
president Simon  Sashadri

called the student aid situ-
ation ‘horrendous.’

The government’s idea
was to help more people at a
lower cost when they elim-

inated the program,” said
Sashadri. “But are we really
helping students by sending
them into that much debt?”
But post-secondary edu-
cation minister Russ Fraser
said the provincial govern-
ment has addressed the
state of student aid in B.C.,
and that it is the federal gov-

emment’s loan remissions
scheme that should be im-
proved.”

“None of us want
students to graduate with
high debt loads,” ~ said
Fraser.

Still, student aid critics say
rising debt loads may
prompt students to default
on their loans: New
Democrat post-secondary
education critic Lorne

“lousy dates”

publicity affair for himself,”
he said.

Sauter, now a_- science
student at the University of
British Columbia, agreed.

“Bennett never felt
compelled to answer any of
our questions about educa-
tional issues,” she said. “It is
a clear example by _ the
former leader of the govern-
ment that students should
be wary of promises given
during the election
campaign.”

Following the November
meeting, Bennett placed a
new condition on the public
debate -- he said he needed
a brief on the students con-
cems.

But neither the brief, nor
daily phone calls to the
premier’s office, nor a series
of two minute protests in
early March convinced
Bennett to honour his earlier

 

 

 

 

 

promise.

“We thought that follow-
ing the leadership conven-
tion, there was a possibility
he would contact us,” said
Sauter. “But there seemed to
be no intention on his part to
come back to the issue.”

Bennett is not running in
the current election. Sauter
and Shaw were further dis-
appointed following a meet-
ing between 20 Okanagan

College students and _post-
secondary Russ Fraser in
March.

“We were enthusiastic at
first,” said Shaw, “but when
Fraser came into the meet-
ing, he sat down and it was
like he going to talk to us on
a father-son or __father-
daughter basis.”

Shaw said Fraser was sip-
ping tea, didn’t take notes,
and argued with details in
the student presentations.

“He may as well have had
his socks off and his feet up
on the desk,” said Shaw.

Neither Shaw nor Sauter
see any better prospects for
education under new
premier Bill Vander Zalm.

“T am scared of what may
happen in the next few years
to post-secondary _—educa-
tion,” said Shaw. “We have
a new premier who smiles
and smiles, but is just as
dangerous as Bill Bennet
was.

“For the last three or four
years, B.C. students have
been subjected to the
absolute worst post-
secondary education system
in Canada,” he said.

“We are the only province
where there are only loans
for student aid.”

Student debt increases

Nicholsen said the rate of
defaulting loans is a ‘time
bomb’ for the Socred gov-
ernment.

“Students are going
personal bankruptsy — under
the current system. It’s a
major deterrent to people
who want an_ education,”
said Nicholsen.

Don _Holubitsky,
student

into

a UBC
representative to a

recent meeting of the
Universities Council of B.C.,
called ON government to use
a more fair loan repayment
scheme.

“As loans increase the -
default rate increases, which
means additional cost for
government,” Holubitsky
said, adding a fairer system
could save the government
money.

Loans an election issue

VANCOUVER (CUP) -
Student aid will be the most
important student issue in
the Oct. 22 B.C. election,
says the Canadian Federa-
tion of Students.

Pacific Region executive
officer Stephen Scott said
CFS will lobby to re-instate
the grant program abolished
in 1984 by the Social Credit
government.

Scott said the president,
all-loan system is a barrier to
low and middle income
students. “There is no_ in-
centive for them to come to
university. Post-secondary
education is now only open

to people with good paying
jobs or wealthy families,” he
said.

CFS is sponsoring a series
of bus ads to boost awarness
of B.C.’s low post secondary
rate, the lowest in Canada.

Both the Liberals and the

New Democrats have
vowed to return the grants
program.

Scott doubts a Socred vic-
tory will bring any signifi-
cant change.

“The Social Credit gov-
ernment has made _ no
promises. They do not see
accessibility as a problem,”
he said.

 

 

The Other Poll

 

Students on campus; Communist or Conservative

Recently the Other Press
ventured out onto the con-
course to ask: “Who are you
voting for in the provincial
election?”

The following are the
results:
29% - didn’t know who was
running

23% - were not sure
19% - are voting Socred
17% - are ~ voting
Democrat
05% - see it makes no difference
05% - hate them all

02% - are voting Communist
A few people commented:
Dean McPherson “NDP
because’ Vander Zalm_ will
take us into the dark ages.”

New

Dan McGuire - “Liberal

‘because they’re not Socred

or NDP.”

Markus Honing - “Socred.
have _ the

party behind him:”
Stephanie Zalken - “NDP
because of what the socreds
did to education.”

Many people that were
under the voting age would
vote NDP because of the
way the Social Credit party
treats the students and edu-
cation in general.

All ip all, most (64%)
students we _ interviewed
either don’t have a clear
choice or don’t know what’s
going on anyway. Of those
who did there seems to be a
fairly even split between So-

cial Credit and New
Democrat. By the way, you
can’t vote Rhino because

they no longer exist, their

leader died. /
Jim Kilcher &
Rachael Smith

 

Skelly — doesn’t