= ^ = T tt£ MCGILL TRIBUNE Awards r W ill Rise
by Michael Smart In an effort to entice more unwitting secondary students to McGill, the University Senate has voted to increase the value of scholarships awarded by the University. At its first meeting last Wednesday, Senate voted to recom mend to Board of Governores that the value of James McGill entrance scholar ships be raised from $500 to $1000. In addition, the motion w ill‘ make available larger in-course scholarships to some students. Presently, returning students are awarded a maximum of $500 for academic merit. In future, ex ceptional students could receive up to $1500. According to University Scholarships committee chairperson Valerie Pasztor, the enhancement is needed to keep high-average students attending McGill. “Entrance scholarships are needed to attract the really good students who will get a lot of offers from the major Univer sities. We're simply trying to stay com petitive," Pasztor said in an interview. Doubling the value of scholarships will mean that the number of awards of fered will be cut in half, Pasztor said at the Senate meeting. However, respon ding to a questionTfom student senator Robert Crawhall, Pasztor denied that this represented a major change in the University's attitude toward scholar ships. “We haVe to be realistic," she said. "We want to attract good scholars, we want to attract people from other pro vinces. It’s obvious that $500 won't mean much to a student who has to relocate." Pasztor also pointed out that the change will not diminish McGill's accessability for the needy student, since the bursary program is unaffected by the changes. Pasztor says she believes the scholar ship enhancement will make McGill reasonably competitive with other high profile institutions like Queen's and the University of Toronto. ■"We can't say we've got a super pro gram. But we're just about keeping up
Volume 5, Number 3
Published by the Students'
She responded to the complaints of one senator who did not see the point in wasting money on students already trapped at McGill, pointing out the the larger awards would only be available
in exceptional cases. Gracy Mimran, StudSoc's VP Univer sity Affairs, objected to the new system. She said she'd like to see as many awards as possible. I'd rather see more students benefitting. We especially want students from out of town," she said. Mimran Said it was necessary to keep good students at McGill, but said the amount of the scholarship wasn't im portant. "It's really a just a tribute to your work," she said. "It doesn't have to be exorbitant." Mimran admitted that $500 probably isn't enough to keep good students at McGill, but concluded "neither is a thousand". Therefore, she said, she was in favour of maintaining the present awards, although in fact she abstained from the Senate vote.
StudSoc Aim s to Retire Debt by Ting Chang Like most governments in the world, the student government, the McGill Students' Society, is in debt. It owes McGill U niversity approxim ately $800,000. Marie Davis, V-P (Finance), explains that, "Previous administrations over the past 5 years have incurred this debt because the StudSoc fees at the time were too low at $32 per year per stu dent. There simply wasn't enough revenue to finance all the services pro vided. Furthermore, the food and beverage services were not run by a management firm, and consequently, there was no guaranteed return each year." A portion of the debt was also a negotiated loan from McGill for the pur pose of buying equipment for the small cafeterias in the Arts Building and the Engineering Building. The remainder of the borrowed sum was used to pay for services and constantly increasing wages. At present, StudSoc fees has been raised to $50.00 per year, per student. The food and beverage service has been contracted out to CVC, w hich guarantees a certain return to StudSoc each year. The debt, however, still ex ists. Marie Davis states that, "The Univer sity has been watching our budgets
carefully over the past few years, and has been generally helpful. Also, they have not been charging interest on the debt." However, given that the Univer sity has an operating deficit of $10 million, they are anxious to get their money back." Up until now, StudSoc has earmarked $50,000 out of its annual operating budget as loan repayment. Last year, they were only able to repay $25,000. Even at the rate of $50,000 a year, it would take another 16 years before the debt is cleared. No one is happy with this situation. James Green, President of the Students' Society, says, "We are sup posed to be lobbying the administration of McGill on behalf of the students, and to provide services. We cannot do our jobs properly if we owe the University money because they can hold it over us. If they don't like one of our projects, they can always threaten to start charg ing interest and effectively veto our plans. They have not done this so far, but it is still very important for us to achieve financial accountability as soon as possible.” The Executive of StudSoc is now pro posing a new loan repayment schedule that will eliminate the debt within the next 5 years. In order to do this and en sure that the operating budget is not fur
Tuesday, September 24, 1985
Daily Rejected
A lt h o u g h F o o tb a ll fans h o p e s w e r e h ig h, th e R e d m e n failed to defeat th e G a ito rs . See p a ge 13 fo r details.
with the Joneses," she said. The Senate motion also included changes to the major $2500 scholarship to permit a small number of awards solely on the basis of academic merit, rather than extra-curricular achieve ment, as is presently the case. Pasztor said the change was made to give her committee more flexibility in dealing with exclusively academic students. Pasztor said the larger in-course awards were intended to reward "students who did not do so well in high school, but who have found themselves and are working hard and getting good grades."
Society of McGill University
ther burdened, they want all students to start paying a certain amount each semester in addition to their StudSoc fees, specifically earmarked for debt repayment. The exact figure cannot be released until this plan is presented to Council on Thursday, September 26. Both Davis and Green feel that until such a plan is undertaken, "Students will increasingly feel the pinch in terms of programs and services provided by the Students’ Society. We want to use the $50,000 on McGill students. We don't want to have to cut services in order to finance the debt." Green explains that the advantages of the new loan repayment schedule are manifold. "For instance, we would be free from the administration. Half the profits of the Bookstore would go to us instead of to McGill, and this money might be used towards subsidizing books. In future, we will be able to operate debt-free." The new debt repayment plan has already been presented to VicePrincipal (Administration and Finance) John Armour in June, and again in a meeting on September 19. Mr. Armour said very plainly, "I'm in favour of it. If this plan is not approved by the students in the general referendum, we will have to charge interest right away, to incontinued on page 11
by Michael Smart The McGill Daily will continue to belie its name this year and publish only three issues a week. That's the result of Senate's decision last week to disap prove a student referendum which would have increased the Daily fees paid by students in some faculties.. Senate voted to recommend non implementation of the student referen dum of last March which approved the increase. The referendum was voted on by students in all faculties; many senators seemed to feel that it was un fair for all students to vote on a measure that would only affect a minority. However, Daily editor-in-chief Melin da Wittsock points out that the Daily was well within its constitutional rights. "According to our constitution, all referenda must be voted on by all students. We couldn't legally have run a referendum just for the affected students," she explained. Leela Madhava Rau, who was the Daily's editor during the summer, feels that some senators may have been misinformed in making their decisions. She claims that some believed that the Judicial Board which approved the referendum was comprised of Daily editors (in fact they are impartial law students) and that some may have acted under the misapprehension that only Daily staff voted on the referendum. "We're very disappointed and very frustrated, Senate simply didn't have enough specific information. I'm afraid they misinterpreted the points we were trying to make." Students in the Faculties of Law, Medicine, Graduate Studies, and some other faculties currently pay $3.30 per semester, while undergraduates pay
$5.50 for the Daily. The referendum would have increased the fees of all students to $5.50 per semester. The ruling will mean a loss of $16,000 in anticipated revenue for the Daily. Madhava Rau said that the shortfall will force the Dialy to continue to publish only three times a week and to maintain its high percentage of advertising copy. Yet many other student leaders disap proved of the motion for reasons other than the plight of the Daily. StudSoc President James Green said he was unhappy to see University Senate over turn a measure that had been approved by the students themselves. "I hate the precedent," Green said. "This was a matter which affected only students and which the students had voted on." Madhava Rau concurs. "It's a very dangerous thing. Senate is in charge of all academic affairs, but when 15% of students vote on an issue and it can be overturned that easily, it makes us all the more powerless." Green says he was so concerned over the potential precedent that he asked the Daily to withdraw its motion from Senate before the meeting. But Madhava Rau said the Daily would run another referendum to increase their levy on students, probably this fall. However, she wuld not say if the Daily would request a fee equalization again, or simply an across-the-board increase. She said the loss of revenue will not make conditions at the Daily any worse than they already were. "(The additional fees) would help us get back on our feet again and make us a better paper overall,” she said. "As it is, we're back to counting every penny."
W eight Room Sags by Jillian Cohen Bob Dubeau admits that the weight room in the Currie Gym could be bet ter. "The weight room is totally inade quate for the size of the student body and the recent increased demand," said McGill's director of athletics. McGill students are having to endure the run-down, claustrophobic condi tions of an out-dated weight room. In recent years, weight training has become more popular with both men and women. The facilities in the Arthur Currie gymnasium have been unable to cater to that increased demand. Torn mats, an eroded floor and equipment which is up to twenty years old are the story of the room. A new weight room is planned for the new athletic complex, to be built in the next few years. Dubeau stated the new gym "will have som ething for everyone" and the equipment will be diverse. Most students who use the facilities are very dissatisfied with the existing weight room. "For a university, these facilities are pathetic. Compare them to Laval or Sherbrooke, " said Leslie Cameron, a
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Roger Rosenblatt lunch roast............... page3 Hicks and his own IA U .......................... page 5 Murder and McGill's foundersc.page 8 Redmen lose football hom ecom ing.. page 13
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student in the Faculty of Arts. "Disgusting. This room is terrible. The leaper machine doesn't even work very well," complained Kevin Kinden, a Physical Education major. Edmund Young, a management stu dent, comes to the McGill gym five times a week. He says he has no choice but to use the facilities because joining a local health club is "out of the ques tion for a students' budget". Engineering student John Disciulla complains about the overcrowding of the facilities. "I come in early in the morning, because at 6 o'clock, the gym is just too crowded and people stand around," he said. Dubeau reiterated his belief that the gym was inadequate but stated McGill staff are doing their best to improve the situation. "We have people come in twice or three times a week to repair any falter ing equipment," he said. Dubeau also stated a secondary weight room with hydrogym equipment has been added to the third floor. Dubeau admitted that these facilities were also very small.