Tuesday, November 10,1987
THEMCGILL TftroUNf Published by the Students' Society of McGill University
PGSS Votes to Secede From StudSoc by Sharon Hayes Last Wednesday, the Post Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Council unanimously voted to initiate seces sion negotiations with the Students’ Society. Lee Iverson, PGSS VP University Affairs, told theTribum that PGSS had decided that if the amendments were to fail, PGSS would commence negotia tions to secede. “There were a lot of people in PGSS who were opposed to increasing (Students’ Council) repre sentation (in the first place) because they felt it was useless,” he said. André Couture, PGSS President, commented that, “It took a lot of con vincing to get PGSS Council members to give the referenda a chance.” He added that “PGSS had not accepted the deal because, quite honestly, we were not decided.” PGSS’ overwhelming 96% vote last March, mandating its ex ecutive to negotiate autonomy, allows PGSS to “cut the links from StudSoc.” Representatives from the Arts and Science Undergraduate ‘No Commit tee’, which opposed last week’s pro posed (graduate student) amendments to the StudSoc constitution referen dum, expressed dismay upon hearing of the PGSS decision to secede. “W e’re really sorry. We don’t want PGSS to secede. We never wanted that. ...We just wanted the whole thing rene gotiated.” said Jennifer Fraser, Science Rep. to Council. Peter Chema. President of the En gineering Undergraduate Society, stated that, “We want PGSS to stay within StudSoc. ...It’s distressing to see them take the result this way.” Daniel Tenenbaum, Students’ Soci ety President, remarked that; “The faculty societies’ problem was not that they didn’t want grad students, they didn’t want it to be at the expense of undergraduate students.” Secession involves different ar rangements between PGSS and Stu dents Society concerning the use of StudSoc facilities. Couture said, “We find (that) grad students rarely use SSMU facilities. We have different concerns.” He admitted that, “some graduate students do use clubs.. .but we can work out something financially.” The PGSS secession proposal origi
nally presented last spring mentioned possible PGSS transfer payments to StudSoc for graduate use of SSMU facilities. Couture added that money would not be a problem for the PGSS. Tenenbaum disagrees. “W e’ll still have to put in the same amount of services, while for PGSS, separation will have the most effect in their pock ets.” On the subject of SSMU member ship, Couture said; “If SSMU wants to help us out, that’s great ...Sure, we can
Redmen Remain Unbeatable
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“the relationship between the execu tives of the two bodies is better than it has been for five or six years.” The autonomy proposal must first be approved by Students’ Council and go to student referendum before it can be implemented. With respect to the possiblity of Council rejecting the seces sion proposal, Iverson said, “That’s what I’m afraid of. We would have to consider legal questions. ...StudSoc has no right to force grad students to be members.”
Defeat Gaiters 32-16
Mark Haugwitz (45), Wayne McRae (43) and Bruno Pietrobon (26) hoist O-QIFC cup in celebra tion of the shellacking they handed the Gaiters on Saturday. See page 11. photo by Lionel Chow
Whither Goes Post-Secondary Education? by Armelle Dodman Two weeks ago in Saskatoon, some of Canada's leading political figures and many of those involved with Canada’s colleges and universities gathered for the National Forum on Post Secondary Education (NFPSE). The forum was devoted to open debate and workshop discussions on pre-determined themes which are particularly important to Canada’s future post-sec-
Force to
on AIDS
by Ian Rarreld M cGill Students* Executive Committee has unanimously en dorsed the establishment o f a univer sity task force on Acquired taumne Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Ac cording to StudSoc President Daniel Tenenbaum,the task force will try “to sensitize the McGill Studentpopulation m AIDS by clearing up miscon ceptions and informing people cm how to protect themselves.” If the task force gets the full support of Students’ Council it will receive funding and be able to pursue projects which include an information cam paign in McGill residences and an AIDS awareness week next semester. StudSoc V P. Finance Don Samoil is expected to meet representatives of the task force this week to discuss fl-
talk together and speak as one but they have no right to say that they represent graduate stu d en ts.” He added that,”Unless we have completely sen sitive people on (Students’) Council, there will be no true representation of graduate students.” Iverson pointed out that other uni versities have separated graduate from undergraduate societies and that “things could actually improve” if se cession were carried out. He added that despite popular opinion to the c tg to ry •
Task force members have been meeting weekly as an informal W illiam s, a m em ber o f comraitttee, said as m aty as sixty students had pome to m e nrst meet ings and that both heterosexual and homosexual students were reprei. A five person steering hoping to carry out a “sex-positive” information cam paign in residences and in the Union building, said Williams. He empha sized feat fee task force wanted to aim its campaign at the general stu dent population feu: dtd “net want in loose sight of the fact tisat most AIDS patients ate gay men.’ AIDS and “safe-sex” < ■>1 > front maimer ”
ondary educational system. “The main difficulty with which uni versities are faced today, and which they will have to continue to face is government underfunding,” says McGill’s Principal David Johnston. He claims that a principal objective of the leaders of post-secondary education will be to harmonize provincial and federal support of post-secondary in stitutions. At present, the federal government funds 80% of the real cost of post secondary education while the prov inces pay the remainder. This provin cial portion has been shrinking. With full-time employment increasing by 30% over the last few years, govern ment support has increased a mere 7%. Universities are experiencing and will continue to experience difficulties with keeping up with technological ad vances. “The objectiv e now ,” states Geneviève Tanguay, post-graduate delegate, “is to have a more general approach to post-secondary education. Students need to be taught how to think, read, and write while concentrat ing less on the learning of specialized technical skills at the university level.” McGill's Vice-President (Planning and Computer Services) Paul Daven port supports this view. “With the rapid changes in technology and the con nected changes in the labour market, students should have an interest in obtaining a broad education which will teach them a wide range of skills.” Improving accessibility to Canada’s
post-secondary facilities was also dis cussed. Despite a dramatic increase in enrolment rates (164,143 in 1960 to 760,611 in 1985), this is not spread evenly through Canada’s socio-eco nomic groups and regions. Children of middle to upper class families comprise the majority of new students while handicapped people, minority groups, and women to a cer tain extent, remain at a distinct disad vantage, as do those who live in Canada’s remote regions. Alternatives to institutional training, such as on the job training or TV correspondence courses, were discussed. The framework for managing post secondary institutions was also exam ined. As Tanguay states, “What we need is a national committee which would be in charge of policy arrange ments and which could provide a means for comparison between the different universities.” This could en sure that an acceptable level of quality exists in all programs, throughout Canada’s universities and colleges. A tentative meeting of the National Forum Committee will be taking place in two weeks. In the meantime, individ ual colleges and universities across Canada are discussing the NFPSE’s deliberations. A meeting of the Council of Minis ters of Education of Canada has been schedued for February, where the fed eral government will take the situation into its own hands or will allow the National Forum Committee to put any necessary changes into effect.
Volume 7, Issue 10
Province Set for Day of Protest by Stéphane St.-Onge Next Thursday, l’Association National des Étudiantes et Étudi ants du Québec will be mobilizing their dissatisfaction with the Québec loans and bursaries system in most CEGEPS and universities. Acccording to the November issue of Le Québec Étudiant, an ANÉÉQ newspaper, an October 4th Special Congress voted to have a day of action and strike on Thurs day, November 12th, to inform the population and pressure the educa tion minister, Mr. Claude Ryan. “The strategy is primarily aimed at stopping Ryan from delay ing the reform until after the next provincial election.” according to the newspaper. ANÉÉQ demands that Ryan set a negotiation timetable to develop a reform plan by the summer of 1988, table the reform by that time, and implement the reforms by the 19891990 academic year. Luc Rhiaumme, press attaché for Mr. Ryan, mentions that the present system is not under any compression as the number of stu dents needing assistance has dropped. “Mr. Ryan believes that the demonstration is unjustifiable; there is no reason for this. We will see if there is a need to consult the students. If there is a need, he is always available.” said Rhiaumme. Although the McGill Students’ Society is not a member of ANÉÉQ, Students’ Council voted to acknowledge November 12th a day of action. SSMU President Daniel Tenenbaum agrees with this plan, stressing that McGill will not strike, unlike other member institu tions which will do so. “I feel that ANÉÉQ has toned down their demands in order for McGill and other non-member uni versities to take part in the day of action.” says Tenenbaum. A free trip to the demonstration at Québec City, organized and funded by the SSMU in collabaoration with ANÉÉQ, will leave McGill at 1 p.m. on Thursday. Ac cording to Chris Alexander, VPExtemal for SSMU, the group will represent McGill interests, “It has been many years since M cGill has dem onstrated in Québec on any issue. I hope that this action indicates a new willingness on our part to put aside differences for the sake of important issues.” says Alexander. Charlotte Légaré, Student Aid Coucillor at McGill, believes that the bureauctratic levels and appli cation numbers of the system are astounding. Despite its shortcom ings, Légaré praises the system. “I think that its the best system in Canada. There are always mar ginal cases which are not repre sented. As well, many students from other provinces try to estab lish themselves in Quebec to re ceive benefits from the system. The
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