The Cadre,_$ept. 23; 1975, page 2m»

J’oining

A question which has been floating around Student U— nion circles lately is whe- ther or not we should join both or either of the re— cently formed student organ— izations- the National Union of Students (NUS) and/or the Atlantic Federation of Stu— dents (AFS) at a cost of $1500 and $75 respectively.

The executive has felt that membership in the NUS is not worth the expense— $1 per student is a fairly high amount. I

Canadian Union of Students, which collapsed in 1969, that we now have student aid} plans in all ten provinces. In the interval between CUS collapse and NUS founding, student aid programs have largely remained the same despite inflation, the ex— pansion of most other Social servites, and crimination a- gainst the poOr. Some pro— vinces have now actually de— creased the grant portion of aid. It may well be if a national student organiza- tion had existed for those five years, then students

_would not find themselves in

the serious financial straits which they present— ly do. .

If that is true- and the establishment of NUS can do anything to revert the trend- then, on that basis alone, $1 per student may be the cheapest investment you or I ever made.

The other advantage of NUS, if it gets working properly, are myriad. It

will facilitate better com—7

munication between student unions from away. Thus, if it is known that Alberta students have obtained bet- ter or cheaper housing from the provincial government, we will immediate1y_be able to go to our government and demand the same with the full backing of a half mil-'

Emu

,‘ dove macro.

_But consider,:w it- it is largely due to the;

' J

lion students. If U of T gains a bigger grant, then we will be able to use that as justification to go and do the same. And further lobbying on the federal go— vernment is a task beyond the resources of any indi— vidual student union.

It may be argued, though, that benefits such as those do not warrant the high cost or that, if even they do, NUS would be nearly as use- ful an organization to us, if we did not joinu-1“'~vw' After. all .,.9u,,r., .crontribption . , would’necessarilyhbefminimal — the organization would 0— perate essentially as well without as.

It is important to note that NUS would do no lobby— ing on the provincial government , nor provide us with any support. ' ‘

It may well be thatito decide the pros and cons of such a large investment are beyond the mandate of the Student Union. A referen- dum should be held on the issue. Since the Student Union budget is so tight this year, funds would pro— bably have to be raised.

How about it? Are you wil— Qing to spend an extra buck to join NUS?

While it is reasonable to think that, due to the high

. cost, NUS would not make a

good investment, AFS is an entirely different question altogether. It offers all the advantages that NUS does (although to a lesser degree) plus a few others

_ which NUS cannot possibly

give— all“for 5% of the cost. ‘ ‘

The Atlantic Region is an area which has unique needs and problems. NUS, being a national organiza— tion, tends to appeal to the lowest common denomina— tor, or worse, to lean to—

wards the needs of its most powerful members. T00 of«

. greed.

~ !

ten,v"national", in this

cotext, means Ontario with a Quebec affiliate. SinCe no Quebec school is in NUS (Quebec having its own na- tional student union) the

inbalancerin NUS may be even worse. AFS,

by its very nature, will concern itself totally with our problems, and to a pddr region like the Atlantic‘ Provinces, student aid, es- pecially grants; becomes a necessity, not a sop to Without increased student aid, post secondary education will become the preserve of the rich. Further, the Atlantic area has much need of pro- grams of types not fully exploited within the region-

. courses and/or departments

in Veterinary Medicine, Agriculture, Fisheries, Ma- rine Sciences, effects of Tourism, studies in Under— development , etc. All of these areas of study are both valuable to the region and not sufficiently devel- oped within it. It is to be hoped that the AFS would serve as an efficient lob— byist agency for such pro— posals to provincial go— vernment and higher educa— tion commission; particulare ly the Maritimezﬂigher Ed—v«

{Student Fe‘dera‘tions‘;~.‘.‘Y-és or “No? -» %

ucation Commission; I

But of all advantages of AFS, the greatest would be the creation of a far better communications.medium. Within the Atlantic Region of the Canadian UniVersity Press an exchange cf ree. ' search into such topics of" relevance to the region as a whale is at present under— way. AFS could and should inaugurate a similar type .exchange for student unions in the same'manner as he newspapers do. Further, such an exchange w0uld go farther than simply materi-' als to methods of attaining objectives~ which at present is lacking among students. There is too lit— tle ability to perceive what makes successful campaign, and what does not.

Hence, the advantages of joining AFS, both to the in— dividual student and to the ,Student Union as a whole, are so apparent, so various, that for our Student C6uncil to table the motion to join is a complete lack of fore—, sight. Let's all give our support to this proposal.

If all we ever got out of AFS was communication with other student,.unionsl. "then- it still would‘ibéj worth ﬁh’é; seventyffive’bucks. gjl‘J ’“

The CADRE is a member of the Canadian University Press (C.U.P.). Deadline for art- icles is every Friday at 5:00 PM. No articles will be con— sidered for publication past this date. While pen names will be accepted for publi- cation, we must know the identity of the author. Address all mail or submis— sions to CADRE,U.P.E.I.,, Charlottetown, W4T POW or .just drop it through the slot in our door in the~basement Of Memorial.

Phone: 4-4913

Editor: David MacRae' Managing Editor: Rosemary Turkington

CUP Editor: John Jenkins Sports Editor: »Mickey Place T ist: Marlene MacCormac Contributing Staff: Ray MacDonald, Kenny Higgins, Chuck Gosnell, Gerry Keefe, Art Laffin, Charles Mills, Tony Reddin. '

‘ ting, at your expense, pet

.of the student body, then

"dents have already paid for

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The Cadre is a the "Stu— dent's Paper' and as such is edited, written, and laid out completely by and for students. It, how- ever, is a fairly large op— eration to put out a weekly paper, especially if that paper is to be be more than just an editorial rag prin—

gripes of the staff members. If you desire to see this newspaper become a truly representative'organization

come down and see us any afternoon Monday through Friday in the basement of Memorial. Or eVen better, drop down Sunday any time after 2 pm for our layout seesion and see just exact-g 1y what a newspaper invol; ves. Who knows, it may be for you.

Staff and Faculty: stu-

the paper. Pay yours;just $2.50, send to Cadre c/o

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