by George Elliott Clarke Imprint staff The Federation of Studentsand its Students’ Council readied themselves for another year of‘business in two meetings held last Wednesday night. March 2lst. At the Students’ Council meeting which preceded the Annual Meeting of‘the Feds, theexecutil.efor 1984-85 was revealed. New executive councillors are Peter Klungel. chairman of‘ the Board of‘ External Liaison; Julie George, head of’the Women’s Commission; SonnIt Flanagan. head of the Creatice Arts Board; .Jeff Preyra, Ann Marie Otner and Barb Johnstone, members of‘ the Board of Internal Liaison; WaJrne Dawe, Speaker: and I*aurie Munroe. Secretary.
Returning executive councillors are Gaj,le I*aws, head of‘ the ‘Education Commission; Chuck Williams. chairman of the Board of Entertainment: and Kathr>~n Se>,mour, chairman of‘ the Board of Communications. There is a vacancy in the post of’ chairman of the Board of‘ Academic Affairs. More changes occurred at the Annual Meeting. The mectingattaincd quorum with approximately 55 members of the corporation in attenance. and began with the passing ol‘a motion to ratif‘!, Tom Allison as president and Jeff‘ Wilson as L ice-president. operations and finance, and recognise them as members of the Board of Directors (BOD) bq’ L irtue of‘ their election.
The Kat hr>,n Semour Jeff Pre! ra motion wa\ passed M ith 5 I members in favour, 4 opposed. and no abstentions. Next, Mitch Rctterath. a recent. unsuccesful candidate for the Fed presidenq,. was ratified in his appointment to the post of Licepresident. universit> affairs. Retterath’s ratification was f‘ollowed b>r the election 01‘ Pre>,ra to serve as a joint Student Council HOD member. Three additional HO!> members were elected f‘rom Students Council: Se>rmour with 44. Ste\c Sapora ujith 30, and Wiseman with 25 1 otes. Following the appointment of the BOD, Allison read his Ol‘l‘iccr’s Report t’o~ 19X3-84: a list of I--ederation acti\ itics and accomplishments o~t‘r the past fear.
Allison took pride in such major accomplishments a\ the winning of Fed Hall and the setting up of‘ the Women’s Commission. The next item on the agenda was the presentation of the Auditor’s Report 19X2-83. The recounting and explanation of Ecd gains and losses pro\ oked a great man!’ queries and a great deal of‘discussion.
withdraivn because its wording was imprecise. After a \rery rapid discussion, the asembly voted to withdraw from membership and affiliation with the National Union of Students (NUS). Its passage means that U W is no longer part of any national student movement. However. it is still a member of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario Ontario Federation of Students.
Next. a motion to increase the Fed fee by 50~ per student. per term. ef‘f‘ecti\e September 1st of‘ this !fear. . Next. the asembly passed, in a w’as passed. Allison explained that block. without objection, a series of the extra mane! M ill be used to hire a housekeeping measures relating to full-time Communications Director, the Board of Academic Affairs. to handle all I-.ederation publicit>,. Returning to the Auditor’s Report. a motion u’as passed accepting A motion tochangctheuordingof‘ the financial statcmcnts. The meetthe b> law which empowers the Feds to call the Annual Meeting 11as ing adjounred at IO:30 p.m.
onquers by Carl Davies Imprint staff When- Joey Smallwrood was asked about the separatist movement in Newfoundland. he answered “Yes, we have our separatists, perhaps 19 or 20 of them, but even Newfoundland has their jackasses.” This statement typified the humourous frankness of the 84 year old ex-premier of our >roungest province. the only living Father of Confederation. Joey Smallwood, often controversial, always flamboyant, headed the Newfoundland government for an incredible 23 years from 1949 to 1973. This past Tuesdalf, March 13th, hegavea L cry entertaining address before an audience of approximately 403 people at the Theatre of the Arts in which he talked ofeverything from his role in NcwfolIndland joining Canada, to reflections on the reign of Pierre Trudeau. Smallwood w’as born in 1900 in ~+hat was then the colon! of NeL\foundland. In his > ounger da) s he worked as a neL+spaper reporter, newspaper editor and radio reporter. Sn+ilM,ood has Lvritten a total of 2 1 book.<, all about the people of Newfoundland. He is quite an authority on the people of Newfoundland at the time of the pro\ince’sjoining Canada, he claims to have knols n e\ cry single one of them. At his Federation of Students-sponsored lecture, Mr. Smallwood gave his Lfersion of how Newfoundland became Canada’s >goungest province. Before the Second World War, an appointed six-man commission was running Newfoundland. The commission was thought necessary by the British government because their colony was completely bankrupt. The Second World War changed all this, however, and by 1945, Newfoundland was enjoying the war money brought in by the American and Canadian forces. An election was quickly organised the first to be held in Newfoundland in almost-I4 years. The elected delegates then attended a national convention to decide what- form of government would be best for the Newfoundland people. One of She delegates was Smallwood, who campaigned for confederation with Canada.
“Week
The national convention (which lasted for two Jzears) joon decided to present a ballot on which a choice would be gilcn to the people of Newji‘oundland as to what form ofgo\crnment they wlould like. The on14 problem was what to put on the ballot. The first proposal that people agreed to put on the ballot w’asa return to responsible go\‘ernment (wphich the! had had prior to 1934); the second. a continuation of the commission. Finall>,. Srnallurood stood up and made a motion to include confederation with Canada on the ballot. e\cn going as far a\ salring to the con\ention delegates. “1 dare !‘ou to \ ote against this and pro\e >‘ou are dictators at heart.” The motion was defeated. Smallwood did not lose faith and. with the aid 01‘the British authoritie<;. got the proposal on the ballot. The first Late did not find a maJorit> in favour of any idea. the commission option w’as dropped and the people were left \\ith two proposals on the ballot, confederation and self-go\ernmcnt. Smallwood rented a little seaplane ujhich b> hi\ confession was “certainly not airw,orth\,” (but w,hich marked the beginning-of‘ Eastern Pro\ incial Airlines) and fleet from place to place. relentlessly campaigning for confederation. In the two da\‘s before the final \ote Smallwjood gaLc 56 speeches. By the end of that time he could not speak a w,ord. Af‘ter the ballots were counted, the people of Newfoundland were shown to be 525; in favour ofconfederation with Canada, and the rest is history. Right up to the time of signing the agreement with the Canadian government, Smallwood stood hisground. He refused to sign the confederation agreement on April I st. 1949 because it would have made Newfoundland a province on April Fool’s Day. Hence, he 35th anniversary of Newfoundland will fall one second before midnight on March 31st because Smallwood didn’t want to go back to Newfoundland and have people . . sape “there’s the stupid jackass who made us a province of Canadaon all fool’s day”. Since his induction as premier, Smallwood has opened Memorial University, the third largest college of fisheries in the
of Action”
Until the commission presents its preliminary findings in August, the Federation, Wilson said, “reallc doesn’t have anything else to look at.” ” Wilson expressed the belief. as well. that the commission, limited bv its terms of reference to provide a plan for more cost-cutting in the university system, will not be able to address such problems as course cutbacks, enrollment restrictions. and deteriorating student, teacher ratios (the average U W ratio is now 23: I ). and accessibility ~ the fear that universities may become “geared to the people with money and marks”.
by George Elliott Clarke Imprint staff March 19th to 23rd was declared a “Week of Action” b!z the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario Ontario Federation of Students (CFS-0 OFS). The purpose of the week was to call attention to the problem of underfunding and to demonstrate student concern over. and opposition to the Bovey Commission ~~~ the Ontario government commission given the task of proposing a blueprint for the “rationalilation” of the Ontario university system. At the University of Waterloo, the Federation of Students observed the “Week of Action” by conducting an information campaign. According to Jeff Wilson, vicepresident, operations and finance, the Feds wanted “to get a firm base of people educated on the issue”. to get “people to make up their own minds”. To this end. he said, the Federation circulated 4000 leaflets, distributed buttons, and made petitions available across campus.
used to educate
A CFS-O/OFS Action”. ‘.
cartoon
for the “Week
of
Wilson said that there had been “some talk of a moratorium on classes, but 1 don’t feel that’s our (the Federation’s) role here.” He felt that the Feds would “look a little reactionary . . , to start having big rallies (and) moratoriums on classes”, when it is too early yet “to have any large or strong reaction to the Bovey Commission.”
One positive result of the formation of the Bovey Commission that Wilson noted is that “students are starting to take a look ._.at what-. the (provincial) government 1s doing.” However, while Wilson expressed the hope that the “Week of Action” would help to create “a base of educated people on this issue”, at least one person, Nigel Cooper, a 3B Pure Math co-op student replied when asked about this week, CL 1 haven’t heard anything about it. You mean it’s this week’?”
The ever-cheerful, Joey Srnallwood.
one-and-only living Father of Confederation, Imprint photo by Mark Lussier
world. and countless schools. roads and industries in his pro\,ince. Smallwood is fiercely proud tocall himself Canadian. Hedrew parallels u ith himself and Pierre Trudeau (a man hedescribed as possessing “genuine authentic greatness”) in this matter, saying that although it tears him apart, he would put Canada ahead of Newfoundland as Pierre would put Canada ahead of Quebec. Smallwood concluded his address by answering questions from the audience
All ison receives well-earned raise by Stephen Motluk Imprint staff The job of the president of the Federation of Students has been reviewed and reclassified by Students’ Council. The president. Tom Allison, will receive a salary increase of 19.23 per cent, pushing his monthly salaqr from $1040 to $1240. This increase in salary is supplementary to the cost of living allowance which is added annually to the president’s salary. Allison told Imprint that he asked for the job review because he felt that he was “grossly underpaid” in view of the responsibilities assumed by the office of the president of the Federation of Students. Allison said that the president’s pay is less than
he earned on his work-term and less than the average co-op work-term salary, which he said was $325 per week. He added that he is, despite the increase, the lowest-paid, full-time employee of the Federation and that some of the employees earn twice his salary. A committee was formed to recommend a salary for the president’s job, which had not been reviewed since 1980. According to Allison, the recommendation was based on the salaries of other student-presidents, co-op salaries, and the salaries of other employees of the Federation. The salary increase was approved at the Students’ Council held last Sunday, March 18th.