20,

Veneta

1998

The Cadre

BY KAREN RAWLINES

One million dollars has been donated to UPEI by the chancellor Norman Webster and family, and is being used to turn the institution intoa “smart campus” over the next five years, aiming to extend the smart classroom concept and to improve the use of informa- tion technology.

The bulk of the dona- tion, $500 000, comes from the R.Howard Webster Founda- tion of Montreal. The founda- tion was established by the late Howard Webster, a busi- nessman and philanthropist. Howard Webster was the un- cle of UPEI’s chancellor, who

PEI one million

dollars richer

dustries,” said Crossley. “Hol- land College is doing exactly the same thing.”

Webster feels that the donation is important in devel- oping the campus.

“The university is a major institution in every sense of the word in this province,” said Webster. “I'm dedicated to making it as strong as it can

be.”

The Websters and UPEI administrators are in- tent on making the “jump for- ward” into technology.

“UPEI prepares first- class thinkers, scholars, and researchers who can use tech-

is currently the president of nology to contribute to their

the foundation. The remain- der ofthe donation was brought together by other family mem-

hers

The donation has been in the works since Webster was named chancellor two years ago, and the entirety will be invested in technology.

John Crossley, UPEI Vice President Academic, says donations such as this one are necessary for things not in the university budget, such as buildings and com- plete new technology. “The single biggest financing chal- lenge for universities is infor- mation technology.”

This funding will work inconjunction with the Knowl- edge Economy Partnership, an initiative involving the fe |

and provincial ments along with UPEI, Holland Col- lage and the private sector.

John Crossley, UPEI Vice President Academic, says that the money towards

iat Aer yaar ent” with what the Partner- ship is trying to achieve, and is

actual as a“ - «Berm 4 “spring

communities, to create sus- tainable economic develop- ment, and to enhance the Is- land way of life,” said Webster. “Our family is committed to supporting this concept.”

But enhancing the is- land way of life via a focus on technology is not as widely accepted as may be expected.

Many are criticizing the donation, saying that the money could be better spent in other oe of the campus, con- sidering, for example, that the Arts faculty stands to lose its Spanish component of Mod- ern Languages after this se- mester.

ButJohn Crossley, Vice President Academic, contends that these core components are not those that make inves- tors want to donate.

“No one will fund a

Spanish ee. Crossley said. “ act of life when you go fundraising is that the organization will not fund rou- tine activities. Just special

ae See say money is not to absorb the damage done by the cuts to education.

“We cannot use this to for the

million anda half[dollars worth of] funding cuts from the gov- ernment,” he said.

But Crossley also notes the benefits that students will receive from this focus on

technology. “(Students will] become

more proficient at information technology, just like becoming a better reader or writer,” he said. “People will expect you to know how to use this. This is the first time in the past two years that I've experienced this: new money,” he added.

Crossley says that over the next few weeks, an im- plementation strategy will be developed. “We wantto make sure it [the funding of tech- nology] makes an obvious dif- ference on campus.”

Opposition

BY TODD MACLEAN

Although UPEI’s Stu- dent Union is against the pro- vincial government's Value for Money Audit, no formal posi- tion on the matter was reached ata Council meeting held Janu- ary | Ith.

Instead, acommittee has been created to fully investi- gate the unknown procedures and background of the audit in order to obtain supporting in- formation to backup their posi- tion before it is publicly an- nounced

“We're interested in finding out exactly what it is,” explained SU President, Janice Broderick. “Most of us are against it, but we don’t want to look like we're just opposing it without any concrete reason- ing behind us. We wantto look like we’ ve done all our home- work on it.”

“We don’t want to look like we have something to hide,” added another execu- tive member.

The newly formed com- mittee has two parts: a re- search component, and a

will determine how the fact

the facts

‘(of giving a wrong im

Audit

can be dealt with. Its basic aim is to find out what impact the audit will have, and report on these findings at the upcoming Council meeting. The Student Union then hopes to reach a formal position on the audit. The Student Union's con- cern over opposing the audit is because they feel that there are relatively few other groups who have taken action against it. The reason why they are hesitant at speaking out is be- cause they don’t want the pub- lic to get the wrong impres- sion: one of simple, “whiny” students complaining again. “Those who were afraid sion with their position onthe Value Audit] were mostly afraid of the media misrepresenting their views and then giving the pub- lic more of a reason to support

the audit.” said Stephen

Ramsay, VP Finance, and chair of thecommittee investi- gating the audit. “The motion wasn't passed mostly because of ‘i-dotting’ and ‘t-crossing.” All the council had to say was “we are against it.” That didn’t ha and I’m disappointed

?

by that.”

In fact, the motion was debated on for an hour at the council meeting before a con- clusion was reached, with 42 speakers on the speaker’s list -- the highest number that can ever be recalled. The discus- sion was also “heated” at times,

“We just want to even- tually create such an uproar over this that the government will not be able to use the auditagainst us,” said Melissa Doucette, member of the com- mittee. “We're concerned that the government will use the results as an excuse to cut more funding to programs.”

“Our best hope is that the government will bury it,” said an SU executive mem- ber. “That is probably the most realistic thing that we can ex- pect.”

“If we come out with a strong position after this in- vestigation, we can make a difference, and stop the de- volving of this university.”