Tuesday, March 2 2 ,1 9 8 8
Published by the Students' Society o f McGill University
Volum e 7, Issue 23
General Assembly generally worthwhile by Kate Morisset As Students’ Society called to order its first general assembly last Wednes day, 400 people witnessed what sources say is likely to become a regu lar occurence at McGill. Direct democracy was the key word as agendas were distributed outlining the various resolutions which Studsoc hoped to have passed by the students. Gillian Deacon and Craig Offman set everything off to a good start with original lyrics to a rendition of David Bowie’s Space Oddity - “We sit in an underfunded tin can, lying on the floor - McGill is getting screwed and there is nothing you will do.” Principle Johnston gave a lengthy speach in which he praised McGill as a “special place.” He said that McGill’s staff had given up over 22 million dol lars in salary to enable the University to hire people “with new ideas and new blood.” He went on to discuss the his torical base of the underfunding crisis and concluded that students ought to offer to increase their fees as a show of good faith. “Approach the government saying ‘We’ll do our share if you do yours,” he said. As students trickled out of the Ball room, discussion turned to the resolu tions. Debate raged over whether or not tuituion fees should be used as a bar gaining chip in negotiations with the
government. The original resolution read that “a tuition fee increase be instituted only if [it is] preceded by loans and bursary reform and a provincial general elec tion.” Ex-councillor Peter Nixon, however, moved that tuition fee hikes be opposed until the loans and bursar ies system is reformed in a manner acceptable to the Students’ Society.” You do not go into negotiations and hand them (the government) the plate”, said Nixon,” It’s ridiculous.” “We pay almost no tuition compared with universities in other provinces”, said an unidentified speaker, “it is only
reasonable that we pay more tuition.” Speaking on behalf of graduate stu dents, President-elect of the PostGraduate Students Society, Lee Iver son, declared that Masters and PhD. students are completely independent and as such could in no way afford an increase in tuition fees, “ they do not have their parents to rely on as many undergraduates do.” As only 70 students remained, quo rum was lost. The discussion and de bate resulted in a vote: 33 in favour of Nixon’s amendment, 33 against. “This vote will be used in an advisory role to Students’ Council,” said Maria Batta
glia, V.P. University Affairs. In an interview with the Tribune, Chris Alexander, V.P. External, stated that if he had to do it again he would “leave it (the tuition issue) off the adgenda.” “We ended up talking about tuition instead of relative underfunding,” Alexander continued. “We need a bigger pie, and in the end it is going to have to come from the govern ment.” Nancy Coté, President- elect of Stu dents’ Society, stated that the assembly as a whole was a good experience. “It is a good step in the right direction, cer tainly not a failure”, she said. Alexan
MACES faces upcoming election uproar by Max Harrold
Accusations of “total disregard” for Conted students have been levelled against the administration by a candi date for president of the McGill Asso ciation of Continuing Education Stu dents (MACES). Harvey Litvack also claims his involvment with MACES has been prejudiced by McGill because he is an ex-convict. Litvack told the Tribune he does not accept the “arbitrary” way the current MACES elections have been handled. The nomination period was pushed from March 7th to March 9th to allow candidates to run for two previously
uncontested slots. Litvack says the two day extension was not enough time for candidates to get the required signa tures and he considers a March 9th Daily ad improper notification of the extension. Iver Bergs, the Universityappointed director of MACES, denies the election charges. “Granted, it’s [the extension] not a lot of time,” says Bergs, “but it was done in the most viable manner” according to MACES’ new constitution. Litvack says the University’s deci sion to place MACES under trusteeship last year was taken partly “to keep [him] out” because he is an ex-con. He
says McGill Secretary General David Bourke opposed his successful run for MACES vice president last year be cause Bourke “felt it was an afront to the University” to have an ex-con on the executive and “it violated a clause in my parole agreement.” The parole clause was subsequently struck down in court as unconstitutional. Bourke was unavailable for comment yester day. Bergs says there’s “absolutely no prejudice at all” against Litvack and “the administration is hands off’where the current election is concerned. Litvack expressed concern at the pros
Panel Targets Military Research by Bill Tam “I don’t believe that anyone at McGill has been building bombs,” said Vice-Principal(Research) R.R. Maclachlan, at a panel discussion Thursday night at FDA Auditorium. “I do agree that they [Fuel Air Explosives(FAEs) researched at McGill] could be used for warfare, but so can any of my own research. To ban military research, you would have to ban me and about half of my col leagues.” The panel discussion, entitled MILI TARY RESEARCH : in an Institution for the Advancement o f Learning’?,
was sponsored by the McGill Student Pugwash and the Engineering Under graduate Society. The panel group consisted of Maclachlan, Graduate Representative to Senate Lee Iverson , P.R. Belanger, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Linguistics Professor Dr. E. Gopnick. Dean Maclachlan discussed the problems of setting well-defined limits to research, especially that which has military implications. “Almost any thing we study has a potential for being used for good or evil purposes. It depends on the intent of the beholder— not the researcher.” Yet McGill policy stipulates that any research conducted by a professor of the university must be publishable and must be so stated in any contractual agreement with an outside agency. In Maclachlan’s view, the accessibility of the research to anyone would discour age any organization from using McGill for secret warfare research. “We must have faith. New ideas and new research are what will bring about a betterment of [hu]mankind. Without them, we will return to an abo riginal state with zero innovation and zero progress," he continued. Lee Iverson pointed out that his main concern was that of large-scale, mis
der agreed: “We learned that students have a lot to say about these issues.” Students at the assembly who stayed until the very end seemed disap pointed: “ If this is something students are concerned about, where are they?” asked Salim Manji, a second year management student. “ These issues are vital.” The next general assembly will most likely be held in the fall. “It is too close to exams to do anything now,” ex plained Alexander. “The information we gathered at this assembly will go through Council and will help to deter mine its policies for the summer.”
sion-oriented contract research. Ac cording to Iverson, such research could be seriously detrimental to scientific progress since the contracting com pany has the power to control the direc tion of research in a particular field. The U.S. military, for instance, has great influence on the research activi ties of many American universities. As an example of mission-oriented research, he presented the case of FAE research at McGill. He felt that re search of this nature was of no use to mankind and that “research for weap ons of mass destruction should be banned”.
In contrast, Dean Belanger argued that it was not a question of what an individual thinks should be banned but rather a question of what society thinks should be banned. He felt that the university is not representative of the community at large and therefore has no right to limit an individual’s aca demic freedom to investigate a particu lar problem. “It should be societal values which limit academic freedom.” Prof. Gopnik expanded on the issue of societal values by emphasizing that there exist certain universal and inal ienable rights. She said that it is the responsibility of an institution such as
McGill to uphold these rights. She admitted that it is impossible to police the actions of professors, however, but felt that it is possible for McGill to constrain specific areas of research. There was much participation from the audience during the question period. Many concerned students raised the controversial issue of FAE’s. Since the purpose of the gathering was to raise awareness about military re search rather than for debating pur poses, several members of the audience were left disappointed as this issue along with many others were not re solved to their satisfaction.
C K U T $240,000 in the red by Chris Flanagan As CKUT underwent the over whelming process of acquiring their FM licence, another interesting acqui sition was underway, apparently with out anybody’s notice. What CKUT ac quired, and what Station Manager Susan Elrington inherited with her new position, was an incredible debt of about $240,000. That figure includes: an initial loan from the University of $112,000; a deficit of $95,000 from the 1987/88 operating budget ; and an additional debt of $32,000 from the op erating budget from 1986/87. The bulk of the initial loan was gobbled up by the one-time cost of $73,000 for a transmitter and antenna. According to Elrington, “the $112,000 was necessary to show the CRTC that we could put an antenna on the moun tain.” An additional $70,000 was spent on an eight track recording studio, which VP Internal Terry Sbrissa de scribed as “the biggest mistake” of the over spending problem. The $32,000 debt incurred from 86/87 will likely remain a mystery as the station’s
auditor’s themselves were unable to uncover its source. Sbrissa, who is now a member of the Board of Directors for CKUT, stated that “their whole managerial service was a sham, there was no one control ling it.” According to Sbrissa, the two contributing factors were the Board of Directors, who “only worked together when the shit started falling through the cracks,” and the Station Manager (Martha-Marie Kleinhaus) “who wasn’t telling us what was happening...Things were done unethi cally.” “I want students to realize that there were a lot of problems," said Sbrissa, “we went into some serious debt." Elrington concurred that last year’s management was out of control and added that “some of the projections made to go FM were totally unrealistic, we were very unequipped.” When contacted by the Tribune, Kleinhaus admitted that "there were a lot of unforseen costs that were never taken into account." She also stated "the University didn't do anything for
the station. They did not cover insurance...they gave us the loan at Bank of Canada interest rates, they just never showed the support.” If the University approves the $240,000 bail out, the station will be able to continue its operations but the financial constraints will be monumen tal for at least ten years. "Where we go from here,” stated Elrington, "is very carefully, considered growth.” continued page 3
pect of McGill employees handling ballots during the mail-in election pe riod ending March 30th. There are currently about 10,000 continuing education students. Ben Yevzeroff, a former Conted student, also supports Litvacks’ asser tions, saying McGill should not have placed MACES under trusteeship be cause it was “not their decision to make”. Fiona Clark, Assistant Director of the Centre for Continuing Educa tion, says trusteeship was the result of the "inadequacy” of the old MACES constitution.
1000 rally for better cops by Mike Crawley
Saturday's march and demonstra tion in NDG, organized by the Black Communtiy Council of Quebec (BCC), was only the most recent ex ample of “strategy” to combat ra cism, according to BCC’s executive director, Ronald Rock. Rock told the Tribune that a new Montreal Urban Community police review committee, which would in elude civilian representation, will be established pending his organization’s approval. The committee would serve as a bridge to ensure that legitimate complaints reach and are properly handled by the MUC’s own internal disciplinary board. Close to a thousand people were present at the height of the rally, which culminated in a series of speeches by representatives from several interest groups. Speakers quoted Martin Luther King, talked of Malcolm X and stressed the need for revolution to reform the system of ______________continued page 3
Im sM ® tuition tooting ... page 5 endless entertainment... pages 6 & 7 pennant prophecy ... page 11