THE MCGILL TRIBUNE Published by the Students' Society of McGill University
Volume 7, Issue 11
Students Show Solidarity in Québec City Demo by Michèle Dupuis and Kate Morisset
Gert's crowd goes beserk in final seconds of Atlantic Bowl thriller jy Ken Muss Chuck Petitpas for President! PeItpas nailed the winning points hrough the uprights on a 40 plus yard leld goal (I’m sorry I was just too :xcited to get the correct yardage) with ust 3 seconds remaining in Saturday’s Atlantic Bowl against the St. Mary’s Tuskies, giving the Redmen a miracle 50-29 victory. The Red and White won he Robert L. Stanfield Trophy and a rip to the Vanier Cup in Toronto for the tational championship next Saturday, heir first trip to the Cup since 1973. Watching the game in Gert’s, with a jacked house, the McGill faithful were jnce again treated to a fabled come back. Two weeks ago the Redmen ;ame back from a 24-7 halftime deficit igainst Queen’s for an astonishing 2714 win. On Saturday McGill led 19-14 at the lalf, after St. Mary’s had thrilled their tome crowd with a major score on their
first drive. McGill came back in the second quarter with a blocked punt by Wally Sordo, allowing Richard Babin to pick up the loose ball and run in for the touchdown. Then the Redmen es tablished their bread and butter - the running game - resulting in a one yard touchdown by Michael Soles. The game evolved into a chess match. Redmen Head Coach Charlie Baillie elected to kick the ball off, rather than receive, to start the second half, hoping to pin the Huskies deep in their own zone. The defence did the job, giving McGill good field position. The Redmen defence shut down the much vaunted quarterback Chris Flynn and the Huskie offence forcing St. Mary’s head coach Larry Uteck to pull out all the stops. A fumble on a punt return in the third quarter gave St. Mary’s excellent field position inside the Redmen 40. On third and one, Flynn faked an inside handoff and
lobbed a 25 yard pass to tight end Briar Smith for a 21-19 lead. Gerry Ifill put McGill ahead onct again plunging from the one yard line after defensive end Alain Delorme hac forced the second of two Flynr fumbles. Then late in the fourth quarter Uteck called for a fake punt and Jim Fitzsim mons rambled 69 yards for a touch down on the misdirection play. The score was 29-26 after a twopoint conversion. McGill drove dowr the field giving Petitpas a 25 yard at tempt to tie the game. Petitpas missec and it looked as if McGill’s seasor would end in disappointment. Despitt the miss, McGill gained a precious single point, cutting the St. Mary’s leac to just two, 29-27. On the ensuing series SMU electee to pass the football instead o f trying tc run out the clock. Uteck was still play-
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Council Session: Fermenting Discontent by
Angela Chapman
Student Council brewed over a University Centre alco hol policy and stewed over the imminent secession o f the Post Graduate Students’ Society during last Tuesday’s meeting. In response to a question from Chris Alexander, VP External Affairs, Councillor Jennifer Fraser, who cam paigned against the graduate amendments to the StudSoc constitution, pleaded that, “It was never the intention of the ‘No Committee’ to force a secession,” adding that the Committee was formulating an alternative proposal to offer PGSS. Lee Iverson of PGSS claimed that secession was inev itable as PGSS had decided before the referendum to do so if the amendments were rejected. “We are now acting in una nimity (to get out of the Students’ Society)”, he declared, adding that this constituted a “de facto rejection” o f other possible amendments to keep PGSS within the fold. Iverson formulated a Students’ Society Constitution secession amendment which would permit the secession, but left the meeting early, apparently unable to get the nec essary four signatures needed to present a motion to Council.
Minimum Beer Prices Council’s attention then focused on amending an alco hol policy for the Union. In an effort to encourage the ball room events to include a designated driver program, Alex ander proposed a $1.25 minimum price for beer when such a program is in effect, otherwise the minimum is to be $ 1.75. While Students’ Society executives supported the conserva tive minimum hailing it a barrier to “mass consumption”, destruction to the Union, and potential law suits, other coun cillors viewed it as “excessive over-regulation.” “We run this building; we have a right to set a mini mum,” Daniel Tenenbaum, StudSoc President, told Coun
cil. “Excessive drinking causes damage to the building,” he added, citing the destruction of the condom machines. Opponents were quick to question the correlation be tween the price of beer and excessive drinking. Fraser pointed out that beer was selling at $1.50 the night the con dom machines were destroyed. Lobbying for a special pro vision to permit a “Happy Hour”, she concluded, “Let the market decide.” “If beer prices had been $1.00, they would have stolen the toilets as well as the condom machines,” retorted Shahir Guindi, Law Senator. Reaching a compromise, the amendment passed retain ing the minimum of $ 1.25, yet permitting a special minimum o f $ 1.00 during the first hour of an event.
Lubicon Nation Recognized In other business. Council approved a motion to form an Ad Hoc Committee on Native Affairs with the primary ob jective o f organizing protest against McCord Museum’s decision to participate in the “Spirit Sings” exhibition. The Lubicon Lake Indian band have called for a boycott o f the event to protest the violation of their land claims and Native rights. Council elected Arts Rep. Mark Cameron to the Committee. An Ad Hoc Committee on Underfunding was formed and Rye Symons and Shahir Guindi, both Senators, were elected to it. A motion to commission the construction of a $25,000 ramp to the University Centre was postponed. Sam Miller o f Access McGill recommended the action, pointing out that, “The University is in the process o f evaluating both space and wheelchair access in the building.” Science Senator Alix MacLean protested that the Uni versity has done two such studies already and that students’ should now take the initiative. At present, she said, “The Union exists as a private club for those who can walk.”
“Solidarité” was the battle cry as over 2000 students from all over Québec, marched towards L’Assemblé Nationale in Québec city last Thursday evening. The marchers went to the pro vincial capital seeking reform to the loans and bursuries program. The current policy states that for a student to declare him/herself inde pendent, he/she must have completed ninety university credits, and/or be married, and/or have worked for two consecutive years, taking into account parental incomes. This automatically excludes most CEGEP students. Chris Alexander, VP External of Students’ Society, stressed that the current policy o f StudSoc states that, “any student who leaves home, and declares him/ herself independent, should be recog nized as such by the government.” ANEEQ called upon students to boycott their classes and demonstrate in Québec City. Twenty seven CEGEPs and universities responded by levelling strike mandates and partici pating in the demonstration.
According to Alexander, organizer for McGill, the demonstrators sought three major demands: to have student input into the reform process, to make reform an election issue in 1989, and for the Minister of Higher Education (Claude Ryan) to disclose his loans and bursuries policies. The march began at the Plains of Abraham and proceeded along La Grande Allée to L’Assemblé Nation ale. The sub-zero temperatures did not seem to phase students who chanted “Ryan salôt, le peuple aura ta peau!” Alexander said the march was an “unqualified success.” Daniel Tenen baum, President o f Students’ Society was enthusiastic about the unity of the crowd, stating that, “CEGËPs and uni versities, ANEEQ members and nonmembers, francophones and anglo phones joined together for an issue which concerns us all.” When asked what StudSoc plans to do in the upcoming weeks on this issue, Alexander said he was “planning a general assembly on the issue,” as well as talking with other groups on campus like graduate students who have differ ent needs and concerns.
O utcry on Arts U nderfunding by Mark Piibe Last Tuesday, in an unprecedented display o f student-faculty solidarity, the Faculty o f Arts committee voted unanimously to endorse the idea o f a ‘teach-in* scheduled for Monday, N ov. 23. This event, organized by Arts stu dents with faculty support, will consist o f a series o f discussions aimed at com batting the growing problem o f underfunding in the Arts Faculty at McGill. Said Jonathan Goodman (Arts and Science Undergraduate Society VP Arts) after presenting the motion to the committee, “This is the definitive state ment that we (the Faculty o f Arts) will no longer be the victims o f systematic underfunding within the University.” It has been common knowledge for some time that McGill University is severely underfunded within the prov ince o f Québec. Many do not realize that the Arts faculty at McGill suffers not only the burden o f governmental underfunding, but also the inequitable policy o f distribution within the Uni versity itself. O f the apparent bias against the Arts Faculty, Dean Richard Salisbury asserts, “It has been incorpo rated into the McGill planning process.
The results are now reaching crisis proprtions, and the high quality of education we have provided is threat ened.” He adds that it it ‘going from bad to worse,” and that there is no shortage o f figures to support the Dean’s claim. The student to professor ratio, at an estimated 22.9 to one, is one o f the highest at McGill, and is 35% higher than the average o f all the other facul ties combined. More alarming is the fact that this ratio has been increasing every year for the last five years, while almost every other faculty has shown an overall decline. In addition. Arts has suffered the largest percentage drop in funding per student of all faculties last year. Profes sor Aronson o f Anthropology is in censed. “For years we have been the patsies o f the University, its willing victims. We accepted and internalized the precept that Arts students are cheap to teach, and that we are bound to accept all o f the students sent to us without deliberating on the conse quences for the quality of education.” Goodman is equally vehement. “If this pejorative trend continues unabated.”
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A Future in Arts by Megan Parry
Last Thursday, Viviane Lunay, Ex ecutive Director o f the Canadian Fed eration o f the Humanities, spoke at McGill on behalf of the Humanistic Studies Program. Her discussion fo cused on the advantages of a liberal arts degree over a “specialized” major, and the employment opportunities avail able to graduates with such a degree. “The less specialized you are, the better your chances,” she said. “What’s attractive about liberal arts majors is their broad base, as opposed to people in management, for example.” The only area where prospects for liberal arts degrees are not good is within the academic sector. Lunay described the poor lot of today’s “lost
generation of gypsy scholars” who are struggling to make ends meet. For this reason, Lunay concen trated her discussion on the non-aca demic sector (government, corpora tions, teaching, etc.) where employ ment opportunities have actually in creased for liberal arts majors in the past decade. “People following this type of study are not wasting their time,” she emphasized. “They are employable.” Speaking against specialization, Lunay citedaU.S. study which showed little relationship between one's uni versity major and one’s career. "Lots of corporations are willing to train their employees on the job,” she added.
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