Volume 4, No. 22

Govt’s agree on

Ottawa (CUP) — Fed- eral, provincial and terri- torial ministers responsible for science and technology have finally agreed on a formal national policy, al- though their agreement to co-operate may be the inost significant point of the ac- cord.

A “six-point statement of policy objectives was announced March 12, al- though the formal state- ment, differed little from a draft policy agreed upon last December.

Federal sci- _

ence and technology min- ister Frank Oberle said the “historic” agreement will “ensure that science and technology are used to promote economic,social and regional development in Canada through ongoing co-operation among gov- ernments and between the public and private sectors.”

Some observers, how- ever, say the policy is to vague for the country’s

needs.

“On the positive side, we're glad that agreed to agree,” said Al- lan Sharp, president of the Canadian Association of University Teachers. How- ever, “they have not ad- dressed any concrete prob- lems. We feel it is too vague for the country’s problems, and very quickly.”

MONTREAL (CUP) -— South African ambassador Glenn Babb made a secret speech at a McGill Univer- sity residence recently with the help of an RCMP es- cort. :

John Hale, assistant residence director, invited Babb to speak without no- tifying campus media or checking student council

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‘of the policy,

they've .

Sharp men- tioned ’dwindling” govern- ment support for basic re- search as an example of an urgent problem.

Ministers in an attractively-produced policy statement agreed to aid Canada’s research and’ development effort, encour- age “commercialization of technology” through inno- vation, and ensure a full slate of highly trained pro-

fessionals. Ministers also agreed to “encourage basic and applied research and development”, assist pub- lic awareness of science and

technology.

.The Council of Science and Technology Ministers, which was specially created to monitor implementation has struck six working committees to

HALIFAX (CUP) — the head of Dalhousie Univer- sity’s physiology and boiphysics department has resigned his postion to protest department funding cuts.

Dr. Kurt Ruf, who will remain on staff as profes- sor, resigned after he was told to cut eight per- cent from the department’s bud- get. “I didn’t feel I could administer properly” under such conditions, he said.

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study each objective.

Before the policy was

formally announced in Van- couver, Sharp called on ministers .to. be .*’players, not cheerleaders” in im- proving Canada’s research and development effort.

A total of 25 per cent has been cut from the department’s budget since 1980, said Ruf. during that same time, “we have lost one-quarter or our aca- demic manpower and sev- eral qualified technicians through attrition.”

Ruf said the depart- ment of physiology recently. lost a specialist in respi- ratory medicine who won’t be replaced because of Dal- housie’s hiring freeze.

“The morale in the de- partment is at an all-time

Sharp, less than im- pressed by the policy’s con- tent, was also disappointed

by the apparent exclusion of university research-in-the announcement.

“I have heard it said that all the universities pro-

Professor resigns in protest

low,” Ruf said.

Although Dal’s physiol- ogy department has an “in- ternational reputation in research”, faculty have re- cently had to spend much of their time teaching stu- dents instead of performing research, said Ruf.

Faculty and staff are not being paid adequately, said Ruf, who lost $20,000 a year in salary when he left a

research co-ordinator’s po- McGill univer- sity to head up Dalhousie’s

sition at

Babb slips in for-speech

Some students have ac- cused hale of trying to stifle campus protest, although about 25 students were in attendance outside the building shouting “Glenn Babb, go home” and “Free Mandela, jail Botha.”

“I am outraged,” said Randy Flem- mings, Arts Senator and Chair of the McGill South

ALULELLL Attica Committee. ¢ This...

event was planned without our consent and without our knowledge, and contra- venes McGill student soci- ety policy wich forbids of- ficial representatives of the South African government from speaking on campus.”

According to council V.P. Ian Brodie, ‘“(Hale) usualli invites controversial people, but usually it’s pub-

icized. It. would have.been.,

nice if he had informed us, just as a matter of common courtesy.”

Flemmings was. the only black student of the 200 present. “I walked in and I was blatantly threat- ened by an RCMP agent who said, ‘with the least disruption, I’ll arrest you’.

”

The, event was lim-

ited to residents of Douglas

Thursday, April 2 1987

skimpy science policy

rate

duce a few good engineers,” Sharp said. are an important part of

“Universities

the science community, and we are. disappointed. that

this was not made more ex- plicit (in the policy)."s

physiology department in 1983.

Ruf said a job offer from another university is all he needs to move. “My bags are packed,” he said.

Ruf doesn’t blame the university adminis- tration for making budget cuts, however. “The ad-

>

ministration is powerless,’ he said. “Dalhousie can’t muddle through anymore. It has to put its books in order.” »

Hall. Hale said he limited the event because of limited space.

“I also wanted to carry on a resonable discussion,” he said. “I didn’t want it to degenerate into a circus.” He said he wanted students to hear the ’other side of the story’.

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