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~ Do you" Feel harassed?

by Jock MacKay

As an observer and sometime participant in Student Union affairs at UPE-I, I would like to offer a few comments on present trends withinthe Union.

This may appear as a personal attack against Jim Ross and “his executive”. It is. Insofar as his experience and world-view are reflected in his “ex- ecution” of the duties of President, there is no alter- native. ‘\

John Keaveny is an activist—a bit weak on critical thought, perhaps, but active, and sincere in his attempts at democratization of a traditionally- minded Student Union. He imaginatively attempted to lead people into involNIement—éalways a new pro- ject always ready to see a question through val- uab-e debate, to make room for another.

Let’s call Keaveny a spri'nter—short—term pro- jects, lots of them, fast off the starting block. We need some long idistancearunners, people who de- velop their priorities in a long-range perspective, and work determinedly toward them, formulating projects in terms of them. I can’t decide if Jim Ross is running on the spot or back-treading.

Perhaps the best way to work into the problem is the notion of politics, and what it means to dif- ferent people. To some, politics means the art of achieving the possible, but to some it means skull- duggery toward insuring the apparently inevitable.

There is a phenomenon around student unions known as common denominator politics. This is the approach which takes the path of least resistence, i.e. a few of everybody’s pet problems are conglom- eratedl into an inoffensive non-position. For exam- ple, during the question period following the address

RADIO! UPEI -

ByAllanRankin

Radio UPEVI is ready for immediate operation and has been broadcasting for test purposes on sev- eral occasions the past two weeks.

No organizational meeting has of yet been held, the obvious reason being papers and exams. This fall will see Radio UPErI go into full operation on a regular pro-gram schedule studio facilities are complete and distributions is expanding. Presently Dalton Hall is equipped with a paging system and the station will involve itself in the next few months. within the building. This type of transmission will be expanded during the summer to include the re maining residences.

The management is confident, that Radio UPEI will play an important part in, communication With- in the confines of the university community. Regis- tration and orientation week are two areas where he station will involve itself in the next few months. It is hoped that registration can be completed with less waiting and standing around.

Other activities Radio U‘PEI will engage itself in next year will be varsity sports broadcasts of “away games”, student affairs programming, and

variety music shows.

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For those who requested candid campus photos.

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by Presidential candidates for the student union, 7

Jim Ross stated that he thought the work that the Education Committee did with the Farmer’s Union and the Tenant’s Union was valuable. When asked if he would go on record as supporting those unions, he stumbled and hesitated his way to a No! By ex- tracting the superficial niceti-es of a particular ac- tion, position, or group, but leaving the guts behind,

one is able to appear as the arbiter of all just cans-I

es, even contradictory ones. .

This is not an accidental train of thought. It derives from a misconception of the nature of poli- tical office. The common denominator approach as- sumes that the first objective is the attainment of

an office, and that action follows in) a directed but .

pragmatic fashion from there. It isolates the of- fice of the President from: firstly, the mass of stud- ents—it sees the office as carrying, by itself, the potential for doing things, and (probably uncon~ ciously) dupes the students so as to attain control over the direction of the Student Council; secondly, it isolates the officeof the President from the pro—

cess of its attainment—The president is implicitly

seen as someone distinct from the remainder of the student body, so one must convince the student body that he is most capable of “filling” the office, i.e. of administering and doing things for the students, treading on as few toes as possible. This concept of leadership has an inherent tendency toward elitism.

Elitism does not occur simply when a few peo- ple are doing things or have control. Elitism is the practice of dividing the few from the many because they are seen as qualitatively different types of people. The amaSsing of a few votes, often through the dishonest process described above, is seen as giving one the right and ability to join others of the same ilk, and make all decisions affecting the union, ' cluding the selection of committee heads (thus m ing it structurally possible to have very comprehensive control over the daily activities of the union). Mr. Ross is making a fetish of this notion of representivity, and justifying central'ma tion of power in terms of it.

Ka‘ttharsis this month

The third edition of Katharsis, UP’EI’s own lit— erary magazine will be out around April 21. This collection of poems, short stories, photographs and

graphical drawings has been edited by Frank Led—~

well with assistance from Henry Piurdy.

This year’s Katharsis consists of some 40 con- tributions. The bulk of the contributions come from the Creative Writing class at UPEI, but there are

contributions from well known Canadian writers. '

Milton Acorn, nationally acclaimed poet Frank Davey, poet in residence at sn- George, Williams University and Dorothy Livesay, another noted Canadian poet are all contributors to Katharsis this year.

r-Katharsis, which has been well received at cam puses across Canada hopes to be a success again thi year. Ledwell feels that some of the contributio . are superior to anything that they have publishe before, and says/he is quite happy with the lates Katharsis.

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Castro oomes tonight

CHARLOTTETOWN (CPS) - That’s right, folks Tonight “FIDEL” will be appearing at Duffy ampi theatre at 8:00 pm. I \

This slinky piece of firsterun celluloid is being brought in by Phil Koch and the Philosophy Depart- ment, (no, that’s not a new rock group), and (neate upon neater), its F R E E. No hype. No hidden charges. A Free movie. And youthought the Phi losophy Department was made up of vague intellec tuals. Sham-e.

Anyhoo, Rolling Stone calls it “a completely funzie full-length flick that will get you, freaky as a french-fried fungus,” (and that’s not a quote).

' For those who feel chatty after, or who just want to listen, there will be a discussion with Koch Bob DeMatteo, Terry Ross; and Ken Butler.

Don’t miss.

Giving you-know—who the 01d “sick hail”

He apparently sees the job of the Executive, and the Student Council, as one primarily of ad- ministration, of getting things done. This is most efficiently achieved by short student council meet- ings, limited debate, and having “his” executive well-primed. If the goal of the student union were simply to get things done, assuming a frame of reference, we could lure a professional bureaucrat to administer very efficiently.

If he is to put any stock in his rhetoric about involvement, he must pay more attention to the process of doing things, and the tone of Council’s activities. Other members of Council should become more conscious of what is happening to them. But most of all, the student body should start asking itself why it isn’t going to Student Council meet- ings. Do they agree that Jim Ross and Student Council are more capable of running their affairs? I certainly hope not. Or do they see the Student Council as becoming an irrelevant, unhearing arena? That is possible. If active students could go about their activities without reference to the games I have described, more power to them. But the fact is that they cannot. They are constantly being “re- presented”, impinged upon, and sold. And now coun- cil is going to perpetuate its breed by having com- mittee heads chosen through an indirect 4/5 coun- cil preference. Again, that concept of leader ab- stracted from his place of work, abstracted from the people to whom he is most responsible —— those doing the work in each committee.

And the way to change this is not to seek out your Council “representative” and try to convince him ,to carry your opinions to the next meeting. How could anyone honestly represent another opin- ion? We must develop the freedom to act for our— selves, work out principles for that action, and de- mand that the student union structure respond.

A common denominator is a method of recon- ciling a number of fractlons. Either resolve the fractions into a unlon or allow their independence.