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sree - heerlen

Administra-
tion,
Faculty
Must Respect
Students

The Douglas College Faculty
strike is stretching into it’s third
week, and as each day passes, stu-
dents are getting even more
anxious about what’s going to hap-
pen to the rest of the semester.

On Thursday night, the Col-
lege Board demonstrated its un-
willingness to give us clear,
straightforward answers to our
questions about this, without a lot
of rhetoric and beating around the
bush.

- Which is just plain wrong.

Our futures are tied up in what
these people decide and we need to
know now, not tomorrow or the
next day, now, how negotiations
are going, what the Board is going
to do about the strike. It is our right
to know.

While the negotiating teams sit
around the table, our money is
slowly being sucked down the
drain. Some of us can afford it.
Most of us can’t. As well, both the
Administration and the Faculty can
- pick up where they left off. But as
students, our educations are
timetabled, and we have set dates
to finish certain parts of our
programs by. The strike is putting
us behind, and that means an extra
semester or two added to our
programs, as well as added finan-
cial expense.

Of course, no one is going to
pick up the added living and educa-
tional costs for us. It’s our problem.
That’s what Financial Aid will say
when they decide we’ve over-ex-
tended the allotted time for our
programs and won’t give us new
loans. And our landlords, B.C.
Hydro and B.C. Tel will say the
same thing.

And what about those of us in
closed enrollment programs? Most
of these students have employment
opportunities lined up for directly

after graduation, and its not very

damn likely the employers will be
willing to wait around the extra
time when other students are
graduating from other institutions
on time.

University Transfer students
are in a bind too. Any chance for
priority registration at universities
will be lost, and this means having
to wait to get into classes. If the
class is offered, say at S.F.U., only
in the Spring semester, students
will have to wait an extra year. A
whole year. And what if the class is
a prerequisite to other courses?

We need to know what type of
plans the Administration has for the
rest of the semester. The Board
decided that if we feel we will not
be able to catch up in our classes,
and the strike is not over by the 27th
of November, (is this an omen of
things to come? what aren’t they
telling us?), they will give us our
full tuition fees back. They also
said they will go to bat for us in
Victoria over student loans. But
_thisisn’t enough. We need some
concrete solutions to this problem.

The Administration and the
Faculty have to give us the respect
we deserve and keep us informed,
on a daily basis, about the state of
negotiations, and where we stand in
all of this. This means ending the
media blackout, and giving our rep-
resentatives straight-forward, fac-
tual answers that can be passed on
to us so we can make some
decisions about what we plan to do.

The Faculty has got to remem-
ber that without students, they’d
have no one to teach. And the Ad-
ministration has got to realize that
without students, they’d have no
college to administrate over.

The Other Press

Resign,
Dr.
Hughes!!

I am ashamed at the lack of
concern the college board
demonstrates towards the students
of Douglas College. Not only do

 

the Other Press

ee

they lack respect at our position
during this strike but they add insult
to injury’ by assuming during the
past board meeting that we would
stand for remaining at the near end
of their agenda. Dr. PaulineHughes
would have proceeded with the
agenda, as it was had it not been for
her colleague pointing out that the
circumstances warranted expedient
attention. Dr. Hughes allowed the
change in the agenda but she fur-
ther attempted to shut down the
student body by setting a time limit
of half an hour to discuss their

Poor
Planning,
Participation

It really bugs me that out of all
the people that came to the rally on
Thursday, only a handful showed
up for the night vigil. Students are
far too apathetic, and in addition the
event seemed poorly planned.

The students who showed u

 

<4,

 

 

 

 

grievances. How dare she tell stu-
dents whose educational lives are
on the line that they have only a
minute amount of time to present
problems that will drastically affect
their futures. Why is it that this
woman is allowed to sit as head of
a board that is supposed to have the
students at their best interest when
she is only willing to listen to their
concerns for half an hour. I
believe this woman has
demonstrated through her lack of
comital to aid the students in their
quest for a just end to the faculty
dispute by immidiate government
monitary intervention her apathy to
the current situation we the stu-
dents find ourselves in. I further
believe that the board and students
should ask for her resignation for
the insulting manner in which she
addressed the student body.
Rachael Burnett

to the rally should have had the guts
to stay the night in a show of sup-
port for the faculty or at least to
show administration they don’t like
the length of time it’s taking to set-
tle the strike. Right now it seems
that students don’t have what it
takes to see it through.

Their apathy probably is re-
lated to the way in which this
demonstration was set up. If you’re
angry at the Board of Directors,
why hang out overnight in the
cafeteria? I would much rather
have taken over the boardroom: at
least it would have seemed like I
was doing something. At least
someone would have been incon-
venienced. Admin even had coffee,
donuts and cookies there for the
students. It felt like a sleepover at a
friend’s place. If we had taken over
the boardroom, I’m sure they
wouldn’t have been so cordial.

Tim Crumley

Notice is hereby given to all members of

The Other Publications Society

of the O.P.S. Board’s intention to hold an

Annual General Meeting

Wednesday, November 29th

4pm

Room 1811

(Faculty Strike Pending) ©

All Current Society Members are Urged to Attend
as a New Constitution of the Society Needs to be Ratified.

**a current member is someone who has signed the O.P.S. Black Book, located in Room 1602, for the Fall Semester 1989

 

November 20th, 1989