COMMUNICATIONS POSITION GETS GO AHEAD

NEW EXECUTIVE position

in the Student Union was given approval by students at Monday’s referendum. Stu- dents voted 220 in favour and 6 against creating the new Vice-President Communica- tions position. This elected Position will not be filled this year, but will be voted on next October at the earliest. In addition to the VPC Position, students permitted Several amendments to the UPEI Student Union Con- stitution. These ‘housekeep- ng’ amendments were the nal step needed in delet- ng the position of Entertain- ent Director, which was liminated last year due to ack of need. The amend- ents spread the. duties for- erly assigned the Direc- °r among the four Student nion executive: members. Ron Cameron, Student nion Chief Returning Off- €t said he was pleased with

the voter turnout for the ref- erendum.

“Tt was surprizing for a

referendum,” he said. “We got. 226 voters which is roughly 11% of the stu-

dents.” This compares with a 15-18% turnout usually seen for full Student Union elections.

The turnout was espe- cially -high considering the referendum was held the day after mid-semester break.

However, a general in- formation session was to be held Feb. 17th in The Pit to allow students to ask ques- tions about the new posi- tion and amendments before the referendum. Due to what was described by Stu- dent Union President Steven Wynne as “crossed wires”, the session was never held. This had lead some to be- lieve that perhaps the unusu- ally low number of no votes indicates many didn’t under- stand what they were vot-

ing for and simply voted yes when asked.

President Wynne dis- agrees. He says he sat at the polling station most of the af- ternoon on Monday and did a little spiel for each voter.

“Most did know (about the referendum)”, he said. “There were questions asked by the voters and I did my best to explain it.”

Returning Officer Cameron said that he too did his best at the polling station to inform students.

“When they were given the ballot they were asked if they knew what they were voting for. If they didn’t they were given a pamphlet and asked to read it before voting,” he said. “Since the general information session didn’t go off we wanted to make sure people understood what they y*ere voting on.”

President Wynne said that a leaflet published by The Gem was also very ef- fective in informing students. The leaflet contained the in- formation required by the SU constitution to be pub- lished before a referendum and Wynne said that stu- dents noticed it more than if it were simply printed in the paper itself.

“We also plastered copies of it up everywhere”, he said.

However, one first year

student said that he saw the voting table set up Monday but he thought it was an in- formation desk.

“It could have been any- thing,” the student said. “I knew nothing about it. I had seen it in The Gem in pass- ing. I don’t know what a VP communication does.”

What you voted for

The Vice-President Communication position, ac- cording to the Student Union VPC Committee, was cre- ated to “establish a much greater knowledge on and off campus regarding all aspects of the Student Union.”

This means that the VPC will be responsible for all communications from the Student Union, both on and off campus.

On campus, for exam- ple, the VPC will be respon- sible for publicizing upcom- ing events such as pubs or Student Union general meet- ings. At present, publiciz- ing Student Union general meetings held in The Pit is the joint responsibility of the four existing Student Union executives. The VPC will take on that responsibility entirely to ensure posters are up in time.

The person will also be required to write summaries of Student Council meetings

so what happens at them can,

be understood by ordinary people. The VPC will also run the Student Mini Cen- tre, a desk which has been

set up in The Pit to act

as a sort of second Student Union office providing infor- mation services, yearbooks, and ticket sales for pubs.

the VPC will be the person respon- sible for writing press re- leases and drafting letters to federal or provincial govern- ment officials. The VPC will also be required to partici- pate in High School career days by presenting those stu- dents with information about the Student Union.

Off campus,

In

general, the Vice-President Communications is responsi- ble for the flow of informa- tion from the Student Union to the students, faculty, staff, and off campus bodies such as government,

According to President Wynne, a VPC will not be elected in the upcoming gen- eral Student Union elections. This is due to restrictions in the UPEISU Constitution regarding voting procedures. Students will have to wait until October elections at the very earliest before the posi- tion can be filled. 5

Phone-in system easy as pizza pie

ST. CATHERINES (CUP)-— Registering for a course at Brock University

in April will become as easy .

as ordering a pizza, once a new computerized system is

installed.

The $175,000 system will allow students to phone in their course numbers using a touchtone phone instead of spending long hours waiting in line.

It will operate 12 to 15 hours a day and handle up to 14 calls at a time.

Student services dean Ron McGraw said the grow- ing number of students at Brock has made registration in person “a luxury.”

But some faculty mem- bers say the system will cause problems. Students without the proper prereq- uisites may find themselves “deregistered” when they come to class, a market- ing and managment profes- sor said.

Although some students may find talking to a com- puter dehumanizing, Mc- Graw said, the time saved is more important.

“What is dehumanizing is these line-ups,” he said.

The University of Al- berta was the first Canadian city to install the system two

years ago, and the idea has been considered by Concor- dia University in Montreal and Memorial University of Newfoundland. a