A What more do ' you want?

There seems to have been an awful lot of abuse directed at this, our university newspaper, lately. Abuse about its name ( the Netted Gem) and abuse in the form of “What gave you (the editor and collective staff) the right to change the paper and cut out all the “good stuff”, such as the “View from the Top”, the Business column, and so on?”

First, let’s deal with the name. Nobody said there was anything wrong with The Sun, but it was not a unique name, and that was the main reason why it had to be changed.

Why call it The Netted Gem? Well, can you think of anything else that is as identified with Prince Edward Island? (We are the University of Prince Edward Island.) If so, give us your suggestions.

Before going on, we feel that our editor Denise Richard- son should be congratulated and commended for all the hard work that resulted in giving UPEI something they can finally call a newspaper. Part of this task unfortunately involved editing the famous works of the Business, Engineer- ’ ing, and Economics Societies.

So, what gave us the right to do this? We, the staff of the Netted Gem, have the right to edit anything we feél is in poor taste and unfit to be printed in the paper. This is not meant to take away from the obvious purpose of these columns, which was to be funny. And they are funny, to a certain extent. However, in the form they have always taken, they have no place in a newspaper.

The staff of this paper has agreed that there should be a lighter side, as well as the news portion, to any good paper. These columns would be more than welcome to be printed, but only if they used a little more‘diplomacy and a little less slander. We are sure that these weekly or bi-weekly columns seemed harmless, but sooner or later, someone would have been offended, and the blame would have been placed, legally, on the paper. A5 of now, for our protection, they’re either cleaned up or out of the paper. ,

If you don’t like the paper, do something about it. After all, it is your paper, so get off your butts and give us some help. A handful of people can’t meet the needs of the whole university. (We do, however, do a damned good job.) If you want more, stop complaining and «arr cor'trihuting.

LETTERS

ourized doesn’t scare me as 'much as dying a grotesque, slow death from radioactive fall-out.

That’s what will happen if (or should I say» when) Hali-

We’ve got

trouble

It seems that every week in this paper there is an article about the peace movement or nuclearwar.

Well if you‘re looking for something different this week, you’re straight out-of—luck, because this is another one of those articles. 7:

If you happened to see the movie “The Day After,” on ATV Saturday night or Sun- day on NBC, you would hRVP <9?“ 9 kprrfu— picture-

lhe setting was Kansas City, lyussotm, oi“; the story took

place probably this year or next year. The horrific story showed

what would happen in the event of a nuclear war.

But as stated at the begin- ning, it actually underempha- sized the destruction.

If you’ve seen the picture, and are human and realistic in any- way, you should have been a bir scared, no matter how macho you are.

The thought of being vap-

fax is hit!

Face it! If there’s a nuclear war, the entire northern hemis- phere is screwed! '

If you don’t get vapourized, blown up, burnt' to death, or die of fall-out, you’ll probably starve to death, or get murd— ered for your last bag of pea- nuts.

I was pretty upset by the pic- ture, so I decided to go to

the discussion group in the Chaplaincy Centre Monday night.

Professor Von Dreger had a slide show of some peaceful pictures and talked about living life fornow. r

The subject of peacemakers came up and I expressed my point of view, saying they really are not going to stop those jerks in the Pentagon from turn- ing their keys or pressing their buttons.

Von' Dreger replied, saying the real benefit was to make the marchers ‘content with them- selves and, although it may not bring global peace, it will bring inner peace.

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“Aah..‘.who needs it?"

That’s a positive way of looking at it, but ‘it’s still not going to keep my or your ass from being blown off.

One thing that came out of the meeting, besides a warm feel- ing inside, was a decision to re- play the movie in Duffy Amphi- theatre this weekend »or early next week.

It will be announced later on CIMN and on posters, so if you haven’t seen “The Day After” or if you want to see it again, make sure you attend.

I don’t have any answers to ' the problem, but if you think of anything that might influ— ence the government even just .a bit, bring it up in the discussion period afterwards.

If you have any comments about nuclear war, or the movie, please reply to Letters to The Editor, c’o The Netted Gem,

If we don’t...get fried first!

Vet college ,

I would like to respond to some comments made by Dean Thompson in your November 3rd issue of THE NETTED GEM. The article,

the impact of the New Vet College on U.P.E.I. as the two are integrated.

The article states, Thomp- son says “the arts and science faculties can only benefit as increasing numbers of stud- ents will enroll at U.P.E.I. for pre-veterinary studies.” This is wrong because, under the present Vet College ar- rangements, U.P.E.I. is not allowed to introduce any courses in agriculture since these would affect enroll— ment as N.S.A.C. and other places. Unless Thomp-

. . 7”” Netted Gem

Staff

We are now a very proud editorial collective. Our competent and curious staff includes —— News Editor Ruth Edgett, Copy Editor Sharon Leighton, Production Editor Carolyn Ryan, Arts Editor Jonathan Orlowski, Sports Editor Phil Stanyer, Editorial Page Editor David Doiron, CUP Editor John Dougan, Editor-in-chief Denise Richardson, and the vitally important Mickey Place, Aileen Matters, Derrick Webber, and John Pendergast. /

The Netted Gem is the weekly student newspaper of the University of Prince Edward Island. Views expressed in the Netted Gem are not necessarily those of the UPEI Student Union. We reserve the right to edit copy for space, style, or legal reasons. Letters to the Editor must be typed double spaced and be submitted before noon on Monday. Letters exceeding 500 words in length are prone to cutting and muc abuse by the collective staff. All letters must be signed by their author(s). Our office is located on the fourth floor of the Main building. Our telephone is 892-4121 Extension 387. The Netted Gem is a member usually in good standing with Canadian University Press.

Gus Hillstrom

9

son has reduced EDUCA— TION at U.P.E.I. to‘pre- vet TRAINING then the statement is untrue. Thompson also states, in

the article, “the increased ex- e

pertise in veterinary medi— cine and aquaculture will be a boost to the economy of

was supposed t0 be about .5 the ‘four provinces.” This is a

misleading statement because the issue is not the Atlantic. ~ economy, which would be as Well served no matter where’ the Vet College was set up. The issue at hand is: how will U.P.E.I. survive as a lib- "eral arts and science UNI- VERSITY when it is lumped together with a non-univer- sity TRAINING CENTRE —

‘.I".‘-_'.' 1.3:? ,~.'. I.‘-\‘. Q ‘ ‘ < III/t [till/Ill]! III/21171956“)? 7);"; ’ V I I . .

posed to the more traditional liberal arts (and sciences).” Thus he verifies the one great fear (and danger), should U.P.E.I. and the Vet College merge. The ulti- mate threat to the university has thus been verified “from the horse’s mouth”, so to speak. 7

He adds that this change in focus would change the public perception of U.P.E.I. but, he says, this ‘fcould be a plus where At— lantic provinces residents are, "concerned. ’ ’ Once again Thompson digresses from the issue of the impact of the Vet College on liberal educa— tion at U.P.E.I., only to tell

namely, the Vet COLLEGE.%u's that we would be better

Thompson makes “motherhood statement” about “graduates TRAINED

TO SERVE in the agricul— tural and fishing industries.” He does not say whether or' not they will be educated in _ the process. Such a statement would have had a bearing upon the issue of whether or not such TRAINING compatible with an EDU: CATIONA-L institution (i'.e., trained vet could easily work for a corporate agricultural firm and destroy the nature of farming on P.E.I. but an educated person would never use his vet training as thoughtlessly - ‘ seeing money as his major motive -—" a “company man” so to speak). We all agree, with 7 Thompson, that training .is fine, however, that is not

the essential difference that.

is‘

the O ff‘ if we were seen as a

‘2:

gaining centre rather than

‘ a'jlgiversity (replete with the

staéard — or as he deroga-

‘ torily‘ puts it, “traditional”

1 a

sets \univ‘ersities apart from ‘

colleges and job training facilities (or programs) as

institutions of higher’learn- .

ing. , Finally, “Thompson does admit that the college in- creases the university’s focus

— liberal arts and science focus.) Any ordinary busi- nessman on' P.E.I.' could have provided us with the kind of expertise represented by this misconceived state— ment; an expertisethat cost “megabucks.” '

‘ It is my belief that the Vet College, itself, is no threat to the University as long as it remains apart from the aca— demic structure of the Uni- versity and as long as it does not detract from .the Pro- vincial higher education bud- get now and in the future. The Only real threat to U.P.E.I. that I see is the commonly recognized ignor— ance of the administrators. They are charged with the responsibility of upholding U.P.E.I.‘s integrity but are willing to let it erode from a liberal arts and science uni- versity to a cluster of training schools or colleges.

John O’Brien

on applied (training) as op-m W

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