Volume 5 No. ary

THE GEM

The Student Voice of the University of Prince Edward Island

ARCHIVES U. P.E. I.

Thursday March 24th 1988

Large turnout for Student Union Elections

By Derrick Webber

THE STUDENT UNION elections held last week had a surpris- ing turnout. Ron Cameron, Returning Officer for the SU, says that 813 students in to- tal participated in the elec- tions. This is 41.3% of the student body, he says.

The turnout was the best UPEI has seen in a while. Cameron says that approxi- mately only 18% of students voted in the elections held last September while 33% turned out for the polls dur- ing the last set of full elec- tions held one year ago.

“T attribute this to an in- crease in student spirit and

. students getting involved in

the Student Cameron.

Elected President for next year was Dean MacMil- lan with 706 votes versus Rhonda MacLellan with 91. VP Operations will be Mary Anne FitzPatrick, elected with 422 votes versus Kirstin Lund with 259 and Tony Doyle with 122. For VP Academic, Lisa Murphy was elected with 510 votes versus John Scott with 177. Elected VP Finance was Joan Mas- terson with 522 votes, versus Don Carr with 249.

Union,” says

Complete election re- sults appear elsewhere in this issue of The Gem. a

THE POLLING STATION IN ROBERTSON

a:

LIBRARY.

Robertson evacuated as fumes fill building

By Derrick Webber

STUDENTS FLEE as fire alarms howl and smoke hangs in the air. This is be- coming a familiar experience to UPEI students as Robert- son Library was evacuated Monday.

Don Coles of the UPEI Physical Plant says that workmen using a grinding tool in the mechanical room of Robertson accidentally set off a bucket of flammable cleaning solution.

“I think you could com- pare it to a garbage can burning”, says Coles. “If you act quickly you can either ex- tinguish it or remove it.”

Coles says the workmen tried using an extinguisher on the bucket, but it contin- ued to smolder. They then carried the burning bucket out a door behind Robert- son to let it burn. Unfor- tunately where they left the bucket was next to the air intake vent for the Library, and smoke was drawn into the building.

The UPEI Security of- fice says that at 12:45, some- one noticed smoke and pulled the alarm. The _ building Was evacuated and remained closed until 2:00 so fans could remove the smoke from the air,

Neither Coles or UPEI Security believes there was

Seite ei ee ex

any danger to students from the smoke or the fire.

This is the second fire touched off by workmen em- ployed by Steens Contrac- tors. In October, welders for the firm ignited insula- tion in a heating pipe in a service tunnel resulting in Dalton Hall and most other buildings on campus being filled with toxic fumes. In that case, workmen appar- ently didn’t know the insula- tion on pipe they were weld- ing was flammable.

However,

Coles says UPEI is not wor- ried about the level of care taken by Steens. He says they have been involved in no other incidents of fire on campus since the October mishap and that things’ like this happen frequently dur- ing construction.

“It’s not a result of them being sloppy... the can was there. It wasn’t anything they brought in,” says Coles.

He says the whole inci- dent was a comedy of er- rors. The workmen were ap- parently following a company safety plan designed to pre- vent workmen from setting fires, but it appears the plan did not involve clearing the work site of flammable mate-

rials. New additions to the

?.

"Dom I LYE To BREATHE , IT’S

plan released this week by Steens Manager Marc Gal- lant require that “the imme-

diate and surrounding area

CHARGE DoWT SEEM To MND. -.

shall be checked by the work- men and his supervisor for any debris, materials, equip- ment, etc. that may ig-

Graphic /Canitlon

nite and/or support combus- tion.” "

Council decides to hold referendum

THE SMOKING debate that had many students fired up at the last General meet- ing of the Student Union will be concluded with a referen- dum to be held April 6th and 7th. UPEI Student Council decided to hold a referendum during their regular meeting last Sunday night.

The debate centers on the choice of making the Robertson Library Lounge (The Pit) either a smoking or a: smoking area. If non-smoking is the choice, students who smoke will have an area prepared for them outside of The Pit. It has

non-

been proposed to use the rooms that now contain the UPEI Information Office for this purpose.

However, if students de- cide to allow smoking to con- tinue in The Pit, a new ven- tilation system will be in- stalled to purify the air for non-smokers. At the general meeting held March 15th, SU President Steven Wynne stated that the ventilation system could cost $40,000. However, another Student Union official says that the students will not have to pay for it.

Students will get a chance to vote on the matter during the upcoming elections for Vice-President

Communications. According to the Chief Returning Offi- cer for the SU, the results of the referendum will be bind- ing.

The of making the Robertson Lounge smoke free has been raised as result of a non-smoking plan being phased in by the administra-

issue

tion. The plan calls for most buildings on campus to be smoke free except for desig- nated areas. "