The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. — Confucius

Derrick Webber Lori-Anne Heckbert

Daniel Mullen Shelli Wheaton Bobby Campbell James Connolly

Editor-in-Chief Production Editor

Advertising Manager Photo Editor Sports Editor

Systems Manager

Regular Staff Members:

Kaberi Dasgupta

Don Lane Sam Okello

Kerry Lafferty Brian Linkletter Jill Noonan

We have room to welcome many, many more.

This Week’s Contributors:

Darrell Cole, Dawn Lewis, and Rhonda Mclellan

THE GEM loves feedback. Get your letters, comments and complaints to us through the SU office in the Barn, campus mail, or stuff ‘em through the hole in our door, rm 401 Main.

We cherish typed and double spaced submis- sions. For legal reasons, submissions must include the author’s name. However, names can be with- held from publication on request.

Deadline for submissions is FRIDAY, 4:00pm

The GEM is published by the University of Prince Edward Island Student Union. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the GEM staff or the UPEI Student Union.

We reserve the right to edit submissions due to space or taste limitations.

Our office is Main building, Rm.401. Phone 566- 0629 or 566-0530.

The GEM is a valued member of the Canadian University Press. ¢

Subscriptions: $24.00 for 1 year (24 issues) in Canada, $36.00 Foreign

Thursday, February 5th 1987

Education Forum Plans Dragging

OTTAWA (CUP) — Planning for the federal government’s national forum on post-secon- dary education, as reported the last issue of The Gem, is drag- ging, says two education lobby groups.

In its October 1 Speech from the Throne, the Mulroney government pledged to hold the forum early in 1987. How- ever, Secretary of State David Crombie, who’s office is organ- izing the forum, has yet to announce further details,

Both the Canadian Associa- tion of University Teachers (CAUT) and the Canadian

Federation of Students (CFS) are concerned about perceived government delays.

“Right now, it’s in a very vague stage,” said CFS execu- tive officer Todd Smith. “They don’t know what the formatis, (so) there isn’t much to say.”

—

K)\ Let your fingers do the registration

CFS and CAUT representa- tives have met with Secretary of State officials, but have yet to meet with Crombie. CFS, CAUT and other education groups have been told, how- ever, they will be allowed to participate in setting the forum’s agenda.

CAUT executive secretary Ron Levesque said even though planning “is proceeding very, very slowly’, government should strike a realistic agenda as soon as possible.

“We would like them to view the forum as the lead-up to a series of negotiations between tow levels of government. We are very concerned that they negotiate seriously,’’ said Levesque, referring to meetings next year about federal transfer payments to the provinces, earmarked for health and edu- cation through established programs financing.

ST. JOHN’S (CUP) — Anew system at Memorial University of Newfoundland may elimi- nate long registration line-ups and complicated registration procedures.

The university plans to im- plement a telephone registra- tion system using computers for use by full-time and part- time students. To register, stu- dents would call Memorial’s computer and enter registra- tion information using a touch-tone dial. The system would allow students to add courses, as well as drop others, or be placed on a waiting list. Information about courses could also be requested, with the computer answering with a digitally synthesized voice.

“Our advice is to first avoid irrelevant arguments about who’s money it is, and'take a look at the real issues,” said Levesque.

Both CAUT and CFS. are calling for more money for base funding, research, equipment and student assistance.

Jean Fornier, Under Secretary of State, said details of the forum will not be released until Crombie has concluded consu!- tation with interested groups.

“Mr. Crombie ‘has begun meeting with provincial col- leagues, and he will want to meet in the coming weeks with others to get input before an- nouncing the agenda, date and place (of the forum),” said Fornier.

He said an expected date of an announcement depends “on the speed and nature of the meetings” with other groups.

Such systems are already in use in the United States for such things as magazine reader-service information and credit card validation.

The Memorial telephone registration system will hope- fully eliminate line ups and enable registration to be car- ried out over a longer period of time. Since the computer can tabulate results faster than

administration staff, notifica- tion of filled courses may come much sooner, allowing more time for administration to add new sections.

The telephone registration system will hopefully be ready for the fall of 1988.

Waterloo Students May Have To Buy Personal Computers

WATERLOO (CUP) — First- year students at the university of Waterloo may be required to purchase their own personal computers, if a newly-formed committee on the matter re- commends it to administrators.

The committee expects an average student expenditure of at least $1,000. First-year En- gineering students at both Queen’s and McMaster uni- versities are currently expected to buy IBM-compatible Zenith computers, at a cost of $1,500 to $2,500. According to the Waterloo committee, more then 90 per cent of these students have done so.

The cost of buying a per- sonal computer would be con- sidered part of a student’s tui- tion fees, and if fees thus exceed provincially-set levels, the administration could not re- quire students to buy them.

According to Dave Cameron, a student member of the com- mittee, students who do not buy personal computers would be at a marked disadvantage than other students. “You are not required to buy textbooks either,” said Cameron.

The committee is expected to report to the administration in May.

LJ rl

(i 4 La finsles 87 LJ

This looks like a job Pr. |