6 National news

Tobin’s cash injection means tuition freeze for Memorial University

By JEFF POWER

ST. JOHN’S (CUP) -- The Newfoundland government dished out almost $12 million for post-secondary education last week, paving the way for a two-year tuition freeze for students at the province’s only university.

Memorial University will get an extra $7 million for its operating grant while the re- maining $4.9 million will go to the College of the North At- lantic, Newfoundland’s public college system.

Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin announced the

new money at a Jan. 14 news conference, prompting media analysts and opposition lead- ers to call the move a case of pre-election spending.

“It is time to begin... reinvesting in these institutions now that efficiencies have been found,” Tobin said.

“They’ ve all played their part in restraint for the first two or three years of this gov- ernment’s plan and now it’s time -- prudently -- to re-in- vest.”

Memorial responded to the news Friday by officially

endorsing a tuition-freeze for the next two years.

Currently set at $99 mil- lion, the university’s budget is now guaranteed to stay at $106 million for the next two years.

Since 1994, the provin- cial government had cut its payments to Memorial by $19.6 million.

University officials hailed the cash injection as “the best birthday present” Memorial could receive for its 50th anni- versary year.

“I’m particularly pleased

Pepsi ups the price of pop at U of M

By JEREMY NELSON WINNIPEG (CUP) -- Stu- dents at the University of Manitoba have been hit with an increase in the price of pop on campus under the school’s exclusivity deal with PepsiCo. When they returned to campus after the winter s-mpnemnstgel cmap diheniligertoaeadt dette Sumner Camp Jobs in the U.S.A,

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break, they found the cost of a600-mililitre bottle of Pepsi had risen by 25 cents to $1.50.

The change has some students complaining the cost of quenching their thirst has gone too far.

The price hike came days after a two-year price freeze agreed to by Pepsi and the U of M expired.

Now, the cola giant is free to charge whatever it wants at its vending ma- chines on campus, while university businesses and food providers can choose whether or not to keep pace with the increases.

Debbie McCallum, vice-president of ancillary services with the U of M, says the new price was in- evitable because of rising costs.

“Pepsi’s costs have been going up so they felt they had no alternative but to raise the price,” she said.

She added that the food services operated by U of M followed suit because they

suffered under the price freeze.

Most universities across the country now charge $1.50 for a bottle of Coke or Pepsi, however many also sell cans at re- duced rates.

At the University of Victoria and the University of Regina, cans of pop are sold for $1.10 -- a price that wasn’t an option when U of M signed its deal with Pepsi, said McCallum.

“When we did the con- tract with Pepsi we tried to maintain the option to sell cans, but at that time they weren’t prepared to do the deal with us if we did that,” she said.

The University of Manitoba and the student union signed a 10-year agreement with Pepsi in December 1997. The agree- ment gave Pepsi exclusive distribution rights at the U of M in exchange for an undis- closed sum paid to the uni- versity and the student un- ion.

The Cadre

for our students,” said Memo- rial president Art May.

“Their fees have been increasing over the past number of years and we were very concerned about the im- pact that was having on ac- cessibility and

student debt loads.”

May added the money would allow Memorial to be “the lowest cost (university) in Atlantic Canada . . . (and) that’s a place where we want to‘ beoa™

Students attending the College of the North Atlantic will also no longer have to

, worry about tuition increases,

| says Vince Withers, chairman

of the college’s governing board.

“(The College was) go- ing to have to increase our tuition fees, in the next two years, by between 20 and 30

'| percent,” he said, but that will

no longer happen.

But while government and university officials were pleased with the money, stu- dent leaders say more is still needed.

Dale Kirby, chair of the

¢ 19 January 1999

Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Students, says while he is glad the govern- ment is doing something, he doesn’t see how the announce- ment will help relieve high stu- dent debt loads.

“The $12 million the gov- ernment is reinvesting in post- secondary education falls short of the reinstatement of fund- ing to pre-1994 levels that Newfoundland students have asked for,” he séid.

Kirby says students need five times the money the gov- ernment is currently offering to offset the 250 per cent in- crease in tuition fees over the last decade “(It’s) a start, but it’s only that,” he said. “It’s not ground-breaking.”

Brett Dawe, a vice-presi- dent with Memorial’s student union, says he was “generally

pleased with the tuition ze.” But he agrees with

Kirby that there is nothingnew to address student debt.

“In the end, this is a Band-Aid solution to a much larger problem that is there,” Dawe said.

Computers a-okay

Continued from page 3 said.

As for whether or not the changes are temporary,

Cunningham explained that. | another upgrading will take

place in February, this time to

' alevel four. “This newer tech-

| nology will be permanent... the _ reason that another upgrading

has to take place after this is that right now the computers are unable to upgrade past a version three.”

Cunningham continued

that the recent improvements in December cost less than $7,000. This amount covers the cost of the new hardware, as well as the usual member- ship fees which have to be paid by the university yearly.

Despite all the recent improvements made to the stu- dent server, it still is a good idea to havea back-up plan for major assignments. Compu- ter Services advises keeping a copy ofassignments on disk as well as on your personal ac- count.

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