vol.4 No. 14 jf

The “NEW and IMPROVED” GEM

Thursday, January 29th 1987

Macerollo Calls for Action from UPEI Students

CANADIAN FEDERATION of Students Chair Tony Macer- ollo urged greater awareness and action from students dur- ing his two-day last week visit to UPEI. Macerollo says stu- dents must look at their own education, and if the quality of it has decreased, they must make it known.

Macerollo. was on campus last Thursday and Friday as part of the nationwide CFS student awareness week, a ser- ies of events aimed at increas- ing student involvement in the issues affecting them. He says students have to lose the atti- tude of not being able to make changes in the present state of post-secondary education, and express their opirinna to poli- ticlans.

“Tt only takes 5 minutes to make a phone call to an MP’s office,’ he says, “it takes a

couple hours to come to a (stu- dent) council meeting, and takes half an hour to write a letter to a minister.” Macerollo feels such contact is important, especially since the federal government has not been ask- ing for input from students when making decisions on student loan programs, or cut-

- backs of transfer payments.

Onerole of CFS is to take the concerns of students to Ottawa, with the theme this year of “Funding the Future”, a cam- paign to convince government that spending on education is an investment, not a loss. The federal government appears to be listening too, with the an- nouncement in September’s speech from the throne that it intends to hold a national forum on post secondary edu- cation. Macerollo feels this decision had a lot to do with

groups like CFS who have petitioned the government to be a leader in the discussion of post-secondary affairs going on across the country.

Macerollo says that “neither level of government is particu- larly keen on having a respon- sible discussion with the peo- ple who use the system, or use the (government) programs; namely the students.” As an example he stated the Canada Student Loan Plenary group, which sets policies and admin- isters the federal student loan program, did not meet this past fall. The Canadian Federation of Students used to attend those meetings, but now the Secre- tary of State andprovincial Council of Ministers of Educa- tion meet by themselves, and Macerollo suspects that this is to “determine a way of de-

Minister Comments on Winter Games

During the Student Council meeting Sunday night the Honorable Betty-Jean Brown, PEI’s Minister of Education, spoke to our student rep tatives. about |

sity will be quite considerable.”

_ she said. “The university will

close for about a month... The

_ usual February break would be extended. The university Board of Governors approved __

the Island, if only because we are the only province to never to actually host the games.

Rob Kelley, UPEI Student Union President, asked if a process has been started to examine what new facilities would be required for the games. It would be an impor- tant contribution to UPEI’s currently out-moded athletic facilities if the games were to require suitable new facilities which could be located on the campus. In her reply, the Min- ister stated “There are a lot of things to be decided. Basically, the government would like it to be a province-wide games. We would like to see the money going into upgrading existing facilities rather than building new ones.” This view will hope- fully tie into to the university’s plans to expand the arena cur- rently in use on campus.

Mrs. Brown also noted that the possible location of the 1991 Canada Winter Games on

Prince Edward Island would |

mean that there would be a change of emphasis on some of the sports involved in the games. “For instance,” she

said, “we do not have a very impressive downhill ski facil-

ity”. She expressed the possi- bility that there might instead

1 extended cross-country — % _ skiing event, as well as other —

Photo: Shelli Wheaton

creasing their commitment to discuss student’s concerns. He

the whole student assistance program.” This change went unannounced, and again the federal government sought no input from the students who actually use the system.

Macerollo feels that increas- ed input from the students themselves will make the government more willing to

says CFS can help make stu- dents more aware of the situa- tion, and identify channels through which students can express their displeasure.

CFS also lobbies for increas- ed summer employment, be- cause, he says “students don’t want handouts. They just want

Con’t on Page 10

CFS Pushes for End to Student Loans |

In an interview with The Gem on Thursday, CFS Chair Tony Macerollo said he would like government assistance to students be all non-repayable bursary, rather than student loan.

Macerollo says that students are getting it from both sides; university administrators raising tuition fees while the federal government is relying more on student loans than bursaries, and cutting back transfer payments to the provinces.

Macerollo says that an all-bursary scheme would involve a comparitively small amount of money. An education is a lot of money for the individual student to bear, but, he says, “not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things.” The idea of a fully government financed education is an especially valid one when | accessibility to an education “is based less and less on academic qualifications, and more on whether you have the money,” he states.

“The whole term accessibility is rapidly beginning to lose its meaning as far as education is concerned,” he says. “It’s gotten to the point where the mainstream student now relies on student loan programs, rather than just the low income few the whole program was designed for in 1965.” Macerollo states that the number of loan defaulters is rising, proportionate to the amount taking out loans, and many students wind up destroying their credit rating on a loan “they took out to better their pmereyment

prospects i in the first place through an education.”

- This policy is directly. opposite ) the federal gaveunnent’ s

_ view that student assistance should entirely consist of student

loans. Presently, the system allows a loan up to a certain amount, after which the assistance is in ie form of non- repayable bursary. : : :