The Panther Prints ¢

March 11, 1997

To the editor:

I am writing this letter to express my anger with the editors of the Panther Prints. In the last issue I wrote an article “what I did on My European Vacation.”

I have a typed article to the editor as well as the file off my disk. When the paper was published | was amazed to see they had just simply printed the file. As a result my article made no logical sense. I ended up looking like a fool who couldn’t write because the people responsible for editing the paper did a poor job. The file on the disk include rough copies of two more story lines that | was preparing for future issues.

Furthermore, when I went to the office to complain the editor was not available. The people who were there apologized and told me the editor would hone me to explain what had happened. I never received a phone call from the editor or anyone else on the newspaper staff.

I] am extremely disappointed with this situation. To me this reflects bad business and a lack of any concern for the medium which is supposed to express student views and concerns. ;

Andrea Bird

To respond to Ms. Bird’s complaints in order:

1) The Panther Prints is compiled on computer, and when we received a file on disk, we used that file, and in the eyes of The Panther Prints, a submission on disk is as important as one received on paper.

2) Ms. Bird’s rough copies were on the same Word Perfect file as the one she was planning to run, and we assumed that it was one long article. She did not inform us that there were rough copies attached. [ We also assumed that when Ms. Bird passed the disk in a few days after the paper copy, that the article on the disk was the most current.]

3) When Ms. Bird went to the office, she was not told by any member of The Panther Prints staff that she would receive a phone call from one of the editors.

We apologize for any embarrassment Ms. Bird may have suffered, but this issue does not represent any “lack of concern for the medium which is sup- posed to express student views and concerns”, or “bad business”. This was a mis-communication on both sides, and we regret that it indeed occurred.

Kent Driscoll

Managing Editor

[with insertions from Jennifer Caseley, Copy Editor]

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letters to the editor

health centre

The Editor, RE: “Health...What’s it Worth?”

In your 18 February 1997 issue you ran a front page story by Cindy Venema in which it was claimed that the University intends to close the Health Centre to save money. This story is based upon an irresponsible rumour. The fact behind the rumour is that in a letter dated 27 January 1997 I asked the Director of Student Development to find a way to remove the health centre as an expenditure item on the Uni- versity ’s operating budget (or, by implication, find a source of revenue that would off-set the expenditures). In that letter, I explicitly said “this need not, of course, require the closing of the facility; nor need the Uni- versity cease to subsidize a health service by providing space and utilities”.

The University expects to spend roughly $53,000 to operate the health Centre in 1997-98. The Centre gener- ates no revenue at all. Every

time the Health Centre is used, the University’s operating budget subsidizes that visit by just over $10.00. This is true whether the person using the health centre is a member of faculty or staff who finds it too inconvenient to leave campus to visit her/his own family phy- sician, a varsity athlete getting an annual physical, or an out- of-province student who has no access to regular physician services in P.E.I.

With the Government reducing support for the Uni- versity, the burden of paying for the operation of the Health Centre must inevitably fall upon UPEI’s students through the tuition fees they pay, un- less the University changes the way it provides health serv- ices. To continue funding the Health Centre from the oper- ating budget. the University will have to raise tuition by almost 1% (.85%). In my

opinion, a responsible and stu- dent-centred university admin- istration should do everything

it can to provide necessary health services that are self- financing and that do not add to the financial burden of stu- dents. Such health services might look quite similar to the Centre currently operated, or they might look very different. Options must be explored. if students are to be well served in difficult fiscal trmes.

I find it passing strange that a significant number of students would rather pay higher tuition than encourage the University to explore alter- native ways of delivering serv- ices. I find it reprehensible that some person or persons deliberately twisted what could have been a very productive budget exercise, leading to continued service at less cost to students, not a rumour- driven campaign intended to increase the anxiety of stu- dents

John Crossley Vice-President , Aca- demic Support

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