The Gem

Page 4

Lucky To Be A Student At UPEI!?!

Here I am again, and this week I have decided to focus on the Business Office. If your one of those students who is inde- pendently wealthy, or who’s par- ents are rich, you probably don’t have much of a problem with the Business Office. As for the other

~99.5these things.

Many students these days fi- nance their education with the aid of a student loan or a bursary because they can’t afford to pay the high costs of learning on their own. The Business Office is just so understanding of this point. In fact, if your loan or bursary doesn’t come in until after regis- tration you can get a ’permission- to-pay-late’ form. Sounds good, doesn’t it? But, like most things in life, there is a catch....you get charged $5/day for 7 days until your bill is paid. So, if your loan is over 7 days late, you get to have a whole $35 added on to the tu- ition that you already can’t af- ford to pay. Then there’s the ex- tra tax added on at the bank af- ter graduation. Thirty- five dol- lars may not seem like much, but it would pay for a textbook or even close-to-a-weeks worth of groceries. After 4 years this can add up to 280 dollars.

I do see a place for late fees. For those students who have the money, but just don’t bother to pay. They may want to spend the money on other things, like booz- ing it up, and pay later. I don’t believe that this would be a com- mon occurrence.

Another fault with the Busi- ness Office is that none of them seem to know what their doing. I’ve asked questions of the peo- ple at the window and they often have to go searching around for someone who knows the answer, or they just fake it and give a neg- ative response. I have had to ex- plain several times to a couple of ttiem how student loans work (ie: it’s sent to them first, not me). If you want to get in touch with the loan office in your hometown, go to the Registrar’s Office, the Business Office won’t have the phone number. If they do, it will probably be the wrong one.

Not all of this, of course, is the fault of the individuals working in the B.O. It’s the place as a whole. I also understand that they are very busy, but how about train- ing people before sticking them behind that window. Teach new- comers how loans work, and tell them that if they have a problem to ask a superior. If your a stu- dent who’s been here for a least

one year, you could try to explain to them how different things (ie: loans) work, but from my experi- ence, they won’t believe you.

What I’d like to see happen at the business office is:

1. Learn how the loan pro- grams for each province are oper- ated and share this with all of the employees. This way, they will be of more help to confused and/or frustrated students who are wor- tied about or looking for an in- coming loan.

2. Know how to get in touch with the right people, in any province, in searching for an over- due loan.

3. Have the people at the win- dow be humble and admit when they don’t know the answer to a

Soviet Aircraft

OTTAWA — A Soviet air- craft was intercepted early on the morning of January 26 when it entered the Canadian Air De- fence Identification Zone over the Beaufort Sea.

According to the North Amer- ican Aerospace Defence Com- mand (NORAD), the aircraft was a Soviet Ilyushin II-20 series re- connaissance and electronic intel- ligence gathering aircraft, com-

AUPC 1990

The UPEI Physics society was represented by 5 delegates ( the largest number ever from UPEI!) at the Undergraduate Physics Conference held at Mt. Ailli- son University Feb 2-4. The focus of the conference was su- perconductivity, with a few ses- sions on nuclear physics and fu- sion in magnetic confinement of plasmas. Several students also made presentations on different topics. One of the highlights was the guided tour of Radio Canada International’s short wave Facil- ity. The other hightlight was the volleyball tournament in which UPEI finished a strong second place.

The hosts (Mt. Allison Physics Dept.) were very gra- cious and helpful, and very well— organized. The conference was started on the right foot Friday night with a wine and cheese re- ception at President Well’s res- idence (there was also lots of beer!) and there was a banquet Saturday evening in honour of all the participants.

question, or are unsure how to do something. This way, they, the student and a superior can work together to find the answer.

4. If students have a good reason to pay late, give them a permission-to-pay-late form, and

DON’T charge late fees.

5. For the sake of students who can’t pay during the day on registration day due to: classes, transportation problems, bank- ing problems, or some other good reason, allow them to pay in the evening when the part-time stu- dents are registering. This would mean leaving the full-time stu- dent material in the gym until close up that night.

Intercepted in the Beaufort Sea

monly referred to its NATO des- ignation of “Coot”.

This incident marked the first time this year that military air- craft of the Soviet Union have been intercepted, identified and tracked off Canada’s shores by Canadian interceptors under op- erational control of NORAD.

The intercept was carried out by two CF-18s from 441 Tactical

All in all, it was a very well-organized, and very en- joyable event, which provided many opportunities for interac- tions (academic and social) be- tween speakers, students and field researchers. The AUPC 1991 will be hosted by the Physics Dept. of UNB in early February. We encourage all Physics students to seriously ‘consider attending and

And finally I would just like to say that I have always felt that the Business Office, like other of- fice’s on campus, are supposed to be here for the students. Sure they are here to collect money for the university, but doesn’t that money go toward helping stu- dents by paying professors, staff, building costs, ect.... The people at the Business Office should be willing to help students how ever they can, even if it means putting themselves out a little. I think this is true for anyone who works on the campus. If you don’t like

students and your not here to ©

help them, and the university as a whole, then why are you here? Maybe it’s just another job.

EC

Fighter Squadron based at Cana- dian Forces Base Cold Lake, Alta. They were operating out of their Forward Operating Location at Inuvik, N.W.T.

The Soviet aircraft remained over international waters and at no time did it penetrate Cana- dian airspace, according to NO- RAD. Their closest approach to land was approximately 80 kilo- meters from shore.

reaping the benefits of that event. Our sincere thanks goes out to the UPEI Physics Dept. for fi- nancial support and the UPEI Bi- ology Dept. for loan of their van for the weekend.

Cathy Blue, Robert Gojmerac, Mark Walker, Jeff Guignion, Nadim Missaghian.

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Chief Technical Liaison: John Doucette Graphics Editor: Liam Whitty

Support Staff: Kheng-Wee Wah

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