LeCters.e. THE LETTERS PAGE is your forum of discussion. Please make your submissions legible to persons other than yourself. All letters are printed verbatim including spelling errors. Deadline is Monday before 5:00 pm. Let- ters may be left at the SU office in the Barn, The Gem office Rm.01 Utility Bldg., sent through campus mail, or sent via VAX mail to account GEM.

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THE FIRE Dear Mr. Webber:

For the second time in my térm as President we have begun National Universities’ Week with an unscheduled event of potential danger to the community, in 1985 the Propane incident, this year the fire in the service tun- nel. On both occasions, whatever might have happened, we were spared any lasting damage and discomforts were kept to a minimum,

“A newspaper is a device for amusing half of the world with the other half's troubles.”

— Leonard L. Levinson

Derrick Webber, Editor-in-Chief

Let me publicly thank those responsible for seeing to : ; : Ian Mollison, Interim Production Editor:

it that we were protected: the firemen of the City of Char- lottetown led by Chief Connolly, who came within minutes of being summoned and showed professional leadership in the face of difficult situations; the City’s police who made sure that we were kept from unnecessary harm; my col- legues who pitched in for long hours to insure that normal conditions could be returned with as little delay as pos- sible; and the students, who accepted disruption of their lives with grace and cooperated in restoring calm.

Derrick Cameron, Advertising Manager Darrell Cole, Sports James Connolly, Systems Manager

Jill Noonan, Typesetter

STAFF MEMBERS

Again, thank you most sincerely. You have con- tributed to our well-being in ways never imagined by the

Organizers of National Universities’ Week, and we are in- deed most grateful.

Cordially, C.W.J. Eliot (UPEI President.)

Dear Editor:

I learned in last week’s of a UPEI Student

constitu-

issue

Union tion bylaw which states that all student election campaign posters must be taken down by open, and that any campaign material found within twenty

midnight before polls

meters of a polling station will result in disqualification of the candidate that the ma- terial promotes.

In my opinion, this by- law should be struck down. In a real election, campaign posters are not torn down a

day before the polls, but of-

ten left to hang long after the -

election. To fine a candidate

for having a poster up is al- ready ludicrous, but to dis- qualify a candidate is a mock- ery of the electorial system. This type of regulation is of- ten found in countries which pretend to have a democracy.

The article said that the bylaw would prevent the pos- sibility of campaign material influencing a student on the way to the polls. It is an in- sult to the intelligence of uni- versity students if one thinks that they would change their vote at the mere sight of a

poster. The drafters of this

bylaw must think UPET stu- dents are brain dead. Finally, this bylaw is fa- tally flawed. could post campaign posters

A candidate

supporting his or her ponents and thus disqualify them. Alternately, a prac- tical joker could disqualify

oOp-

every candidate by placing posters in support of every candidate.

Jim Wen-tzen Lai

Dear editor: In

reference to last week's arti- cle. regarding candidate dis- qualification, I really don’t see what all the fuss is about with having to make sure all posters are removed from view of the polling station by midnight before voting day. Although the Student Union states that this is to prevent the possibility of posters in- fluencing voters on way to the polls, I raise two points.

First of all, if the posters were allowed to remain up the problem would be reme- died, since all voters would be equally influenced. And secondly, do the powers that be think that students at a post-secondary institution so

naive that the visual stim-

POSTER BY-LAW RIDICULED

ulus provided by a_ poster is going to alter the course of their previously decided vote. If so, why the student union go-all the

doesn’t

way on this and enact legisla- tion similar to that governing liquor sales on the day of fed- eral and provincial elections, and close the university pub on election day, and if the elections span two over days, well, so be. it.

The way I see it, either go all the way and enforce,

this statute to its logically absurd conclusion or drop

the rule from the books. A the very least, SU president Steve Wynne should look into the matter and deter- mine what constructive pur- pose if any this by-law serves. Awaken from the fantasy SU executive and take some ac- tion: the student hody is laughing at you!

Signed,

Giggling all the way

(a reactionary senior)

Robert Bodrog, Dawne Chappelle, Shawn Connolly, Kaberi Dasgupta, Cora-Lee Des Roches, Vivian Huizenga, Anne Irving, Bobbi Sue Keating, Susan Kellock, David MacKinnon, Ian Mollison, Lisa Murphy, Claire Murray, Dave. Newport, Sam Okello, Ellen Perry, and Chris Vessey.

This Week’s Contributors:

CIMN, Sean MacIntosh, Kelly VanBuskirk, Laurie Reeves, Michelle Cottreau, Advisory Council on the Status of Women, and the UPEI Information Office.

Deadline for submissions is Monday, 5:00pm -

Please ensure your submissions are legible to persons other than yourself. We prefer typed and double spaced submissions and submissions on computer disk or through VAX mail. For

ageel reasons, all submissions must include the author’s name and phone number. However, names will be withheld from publication on re- quest.

The GEM is published by the University of Prince Edward Island Student Union. Views ex- pressed are not necessarily those of the GEM staff, the UPEI Student Union, or of anyone in particular.

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

If you are interested in learning more about your student newspaper, drop on down to our office anytime or come to our regular meetings Monday at 6:00pm.

Our office is buried in the UTILITY BUILD- ING, Rm.01. Look for the plunger pointing the way. Phone 566-0629 or 566-0530 or send VAX mail to account GEM.

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