entertaining, fast-paced edu- cational show for pre- schoolers.

The show was to be modelled after, oddly enough, beer commercials and the TV hit Laugh In.

Sesame Street officially hit the air on November 9, 1969, receiving mixed reviews from parents and media.

Critics complained that the fast-paced nature of the show would make children skit- tish and diminish their atten- tion span.

However, research showed that pre-schoolers who watched Sesame Street were better prepared to begin kin- dergarten. By the end of its first year, Sesame Street had more than seven million regu- lar viewers.

Educators have long butted heads over whether Sesame Street is educational, regardless of its format. De- bate rages over the fast-paced format ofthe show, which some fear may cause childrento have shorter attention spans.

The current Canadian

ThePanther Prints @* News

Sesame Street...

content of Sesame Street is about 22 minutes per hour, or just enough for a half hour all Canadian show. Content is not the only reason that Sesame Park will be a half hour show.

None of the Sesame Park staffers are concerned that viewers may choose American Public Broadcasting Stations tosee the old Street. Greenfield says itis not likely that viewers will be so nostalgic they will completely ignore the new show.

"I think not. I think it holds because right in the past we've got letters [saying] that no one could tell American from Canadian content."

Sesame Park will air weekdays from 9:30 to 10.a.m. CBC willalso includethe show in its Saturday morning lineup from 8:30 to 9 a.m.

Those who still long for the familiar harmonica strains and the dingy Brooklyn scene can tune in to American PBS stations. Provided, of course, one has cable.

Otherwise, tune in to CBC and say "Bonjour!" to Basil and Dodi.

UPEl is Playing the Marketing Game

Student services is cur- rently examining student satis- faction or dissatisfaction with UPEI's programs and facili- ties. They are conducting an extensive study that is split into three phases. Hopefully, this study will answer the many questions that most universi- ties want to know: why do students leave before they are finished their degree; and, why students applied to the univer- sity but did not come.

Part of this study is fo- cused on high school students, and is in the form ofa question-

naire. Originally, UPEI's stu-

dent services was going to per- ° ‘form one-on-one interviews with select high school stu- — dents; but, after President ~

Epperly had a meeting with the senior high school principals in PEI, this study has been altered to a questionnaire that will be given to all the students eligible to apply to university.

This isa pioneer project in Canada, which is aproblem according to Blaine Jenson, head of student services, be- cause they have no data to base their results.

However, the _

data they do get will hopefully expose some important infor- mation, both to the university and to the high school stu- dents. In fact, President Epperly remarked that one of the focuses of this question- naire is to inform students of what UPEI does well and what they don't know about the school. One interesting fact that she pointed out was: "we have more students who major in Biology that will get into medical school than Dal or Mc.Gill, that is an astounding fact".

Blaine Jenson explained that the questionnaire is split into three sections. The first section is aimed at discovering what high schoolers are look- ing for in auniversity and what are the top schools in their rankings. They are asked to check off several issues that they believe are most impor- tant in a university, such as class size and library resources. And how does UPEI rate with these issues? The second part of the questionnaireis focused on where the students actually intend to go to school. The hypothesis is thatthese answers will not coincide with the an- swers of the first section: the best universities. Ifthis is true,

. then student services wants to

know why students didn't choose "the best schools"; per-

_ haps, because of money costs,

location, etc.. The third sec- tion of the questionnaire is on recruitment, and it focuses on whether or not the high school students have been approached by other universities (ours in- cluding), and if so, how were they approached, and what did they think of the presentation? So as they are scoping out the competition, UPEI is also attaining valuable cus- tomer input. Blaine empha- sized that "this is not a super- ficial marketing ploy". He doesn't want UPEI to "market, market, market" as many schools do in the U.S. The reason being is that they do not want to bring in a student who is going to be dissatisfied with what UPEI offers. Yet, Blaine didnot deny the fact that UPEI is looking to attract students to the university, and the method that they are using is the "hon- est approach". What are they going to do with the data they receive? Well, they are going to see where they need im- provementand what UPEI can do to attract more students; but, they are also going to see where the school is strong and build from its strengths. Blaine Jenson noted, however, that "we have to keep in mind, this study is studying high school students and their perceptions, and we realize that some of their perceptions are not going to be accurate to the reality".