4 News

French Consulate- General subsidizes poster displays

By RANDY MCDONALD

If you’ve been walking onthe third floor of Main build- ing, you’ ve probably noticed a collection of 20 French-lan- guage posters, and adjacent placards — sponsored by the French Consulate-General in Moncton. This series — enti- tled Chateaubriand 1768- 1848 — is part of a collection of poster sets subsidized by the Association pour la dif- fusion de la pensée francaise (“Association for the Diffu- sion of French Thought). The Association was founded in 1946 asa branch ofthe French Foreign Ministry in order to promote French culture abroad.

Chateaubriand 1768- 1848 is part of a number of

poster sets that are touring

Atlantic Canadian universities in the early months of 1999. The Chateaubriand poster set will be on display until January 29, at which point it will be sent to Acadia University. In Feb- ruary, a set of posters about the life of 20th century French Catholic writer Georges Bernanos will be on display on Main building's third floor. Chateaubriand, born in 1768 to a noble family of Brittany, grew up to become one of the most important French Romantic writers of the first half of the 19” cen- tury. Of his many polemical works, novels, and essays, two books — 1802’s The Gen- ius of Christianity and his au- tobiography Memories from Beyond the Tomb — are par- ticularly well-known.

Chateaubriand not only served under Napoleon for four years, but after the res- toration of the Bourbons in 1815 Chateaubriand be- came a leading member of the French foreign service. Chateaubriand died in 1848, in Paris.

Web Link: (http:// www.mosquitoweb. fr/cul- ture/biblio/adpf/presentation/ present.html)

This is the Associa- tion’s home page. Non- bilinguals will be disap- pointed to find that it is French-only, but the Altavista Babelfish transla- tion program (http:// babelfish.altavista.com/cgi- bin/translate) provides ad- equate translations into English.

Questions raised about scholarship society

ByIRFANDHALLA

VANCOUVER (CUP BRIEF) -- Six-figure salaries, trips to Cancun and glamorous conventions with paid speeches from Hollywood ac- tors do not fit the description of mostnon-profit organizations.

But the Golden Key Honor Society, an Atlanta- based non-profit organization that boasts the membership of several Canadian universities, is one exception.

The organization prom- ises scholarships and contacts to high academic achievers to its 271 affiliates, including the University of British Colum- bia, the University of Toronto, McGill University, McMaster University and the University of Alberta.

The University of British Columbia joined the society last fall partly on the urging of

its president, Martha Piper, who sent letters endorsing the or- ganization to about 3,200 of the school’s top students.

More than 800 students

paid $80 each -- for a total of

$64,000 -- tojoin the society that according to Golden Key litera- ture is associated with the likes of U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel and Ameri- can Red Cross President Eliza- beth Dole.

But questions are being raised about whether the Golden Key Honor Society is as good as it sounds.

Theorganization’s submis- sion to the U.S. Internal Rev- enue Service, obtained by the Ubyssey, shows it spent just $289,461 US onscholarships, or less than five per cent of its total expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1997.

And according to the Atlanta Better Business Bu- reau, Golden Key has re- fused to provide it with its financial statements.

Valerie Maclean, gen- eral manager of the Vancou- ver Better Business Bureau, says withholding such infor- mation is highly unusual for non-profit organizations.

She and the president of UBC’s Golden Key chap- ter, Fahreen Dossa, have also expressed concern over the society’s spending practices. Dossa said she had expected scholarships would account for around 60 per cent of the organization’s total expendi- tures.

She also pointed to the high salaries paid to Golden Key directors. The organiza- tion spent $1,822,837 US on salaries and other employee

The Cadre

¢ 19 January 1999

We have a winner

UPEI Psychology major wins Rhodes Scholarship .

By RANDY MCDONALD

Over the Christmas holiday, fourth-year psychology major Héléne Deacon got a big surprise when she learned that she won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University in England. Deacon is only one of eleven students in all of Canada to have qualified for the Rhodes scholarship..

The Rhodes Scholarships were founded in 1902 by British industrialist Cecil John Rhodes, and are awarded to students from 18 to 24 years of age in the Commonwealth of Nations, the United States, Germany, and South Africa. The selection of students is based upon academic achievements, participation in sports, and leadership. The winner of a Rhodes scholarship has tuition and living costs subsidized for two years, with the possibility ofan extension to a third year.

If Deacon’s application to Oxford is accepted, she will go to England this coming October. a

Helene Deacon recieves Rhodes Scholarsh

-photo by Richard Haines

benefits in 1997 and its execu- tive director, James Lewis, received $247,600 US.

But Golden Key’s rep- resentative in Vancouver feels that Lewis’ salary is not ex- traordinary.

Kari Sivam, a former UBC student who is now Golden Key’s Assistant Di- rector of International Devel- opment, said that a recent

study of for-profit as well as_

non-profit organizations re- vealed that the average salary of a chief executive officer in the US is $225,000.

While Golden Key spends a lot of money on sala- ries, it spends even more on conferences and initiation cer- emonies. Morethan half ofthe organization’s budget is spent on these ceremonies.

Golden Key directors were unavailable forcomment.

Despite her concerns, however, Dossa says UBC students are not being bilked of their money.

Aside from Piper’s let- ter, some students were en- couraged to join the organiza- tion by a member of the uni- versity’s awards and financial aid office who recruited the first few students after being approached by Golden Key.

Carol Gibson, director of the university’s awards and financial aid, says the commit- tee charged with looking into whether to join the organiza- tion reviewed all information available about Golden Key.

Gibson said material available included an audit by the accounting firm Smith and Hart that clearly shows Golden Key’s scholarship figure and conference expenses, but does not give a list of salaries.