FEBRUARY 14, 2007

CAMPUS

Mark Corney, Nathan Gill and Mark Hemphill prepare set up for Radio@UPEI. They may be part of the core group involved with the upcoming ECMAs in Hali-

fax.

Murray photo

Radio

UPEI to cover

Halifax ECMAs

Stacey Murray Advertising Manager

UPEI’s Business, education and ap- plied technology program, also known as BEAT, has been working up a storm since last year’s East Coast Music Awards and the result is an invitation to travel to Halifax to do it all over again.

Radio@UPEI, one of the programs of BEAT, took a large role in last year’s awards as the Internet provider for the Charlottetown event. They created over 50 podcasts of vatious performances and created a community for webloggers.

This, along with their coverage of the Prince Edward Island Music Awards last fall, is the reason they’ve been asked to travel to Halifax for this year’s ECMAs, where they will play an even larger role.

Mark Hemphill, the director of BEAT, said a core group of roughly 15 will travel to Nova Scotia, where they will tape various performances and put together an in-studio talk show, among other things.

Hemphill, who is also chair of tech- nology for the award’s board of direc- tors, said the university’s contribution will help bring the awards into the 21st century. He also said those involved will help give the awards “an added street level they weren’t used to.”

Now students will have a way to watch

highlights from the weekend, he said. “Tt will create a legacy that will last all year long.” The awards will take place Feb. 15-18, with the gala event airing on CBC the

evening of the 18. The Trailer Park Boys

will host the show for a second year in a row.

While the campus radio station will be in charge of covering the event itself, students enrolled in interactive multime- dia at Holland College will also play a role in the production.

Patrick Ledwell, a learning manager for the program, said while no students were planning to take the trip to Halifax, they will be working behind the scenes to give a professional touch to the podcasts.

“We're looking to use the most visual parts of our program,” Ledwell said.

This would include video tags at the beginning and end of the podcasts, which introduce the awards and the specific podcasts by using graphics and sound.

Interactive multimedia and BEAT have collaborated on many events in the past, he said.

“We're trying to bring together stu- dents from two institutions.”

To view what’s already been done in preparation for this year’s event, visit

http://radio.upei.ca/ecma.

Faiz Ahmed Contributor

Your tuition is going up again. And in the following weeks, the Student Union is poised to approve the hike on your behalf. Seriously. Perhaps the most curi- lous aspect of the discussion on UPEI tuition fee hikes at the SU meeting on the evening of February 11th was that it followed on the heels of two national

“Jevents surrounding tuition; specifically

the “Day of Action” organized by the Canadian Federation of Students on February 7th, when tens of thousands lof students across the country marched to theit provincial legislatures demand- ing that their tuition be either reduced or frozen. It’s not impossible. Newfound- land, a province very similar to PEI in that it has one university (albeit with sev- eral campuses) has actually seen tuition fees reductions over the past four years. The second event, and I am using the term rather loosely, was the discussion topic on the CBC’s nationally-aired call in show, Cross Country Checkup; where lon February 11th, Rex wondered if the cost of tuition was too high.

This brings me back to the discussion Wwe had at the Student Union meeting lion February 11th, where, council was informed, by the SU President, that a tuition committee was going to be cre- lated with a mandate to bring forth the issue of university-tuition to the PEI Legislature. Of course, one of the first questions tabled asked what the Student Unions position on tuition was (the

THE CADRE ° 4

Tuition may rise 12% over next 3 years

discussion should be recorded in the meetings minutes, which are available

to any student). It turns out that there

is no clear answer to this question. As councilors on the SU, we have absolutely no idea how students feel about tuition. We do, however, know exactly what the administration expects, they’ve told us, or more specifically, they’ve told the SU President and he’s told us.

So, what does the administration want? Well, for starters, they want to increase out tuition by between 4% and 4.6% each year for the next three years (this after our tuition increased by 6.5% from last yeariv). The administration have their reasons and justifications of course, all of which can and should be ques- tioned and debated (you should be able to read their reasons in the minutes from the February 11th SU meeting). Unsur- prisingly, the Student Union is being corralled into accepting this position as well. What is surprising, however, is that the SU is preparing to accept this posi- tion, with very little discussion or debate. Surely, our constituents. deserve better.-

I expect the issue of tuition to sur- face again at the SU’s next meeting, on February 25th (7:00pm in the ITEC room), these meetings are open to the public and I would encourage students — to come and express their views to their respective councilors. Students can (and should) email their councilors their thoughts. as well (you can search their email addresses through the campus webmail service).