Volume 7, Number 19

The Student Voice of University of Prince Edward Island

Student Take-Over

VANCOUVER (CUP) - About 35 Simon Fraser stu- dents left the univeristy ad- ministration building Jan. 25 after occupying it for two nights to protest a six per cent tuition fee hike.

‘The students decided to leave after BC higher edu- cation minister Bruce Stra- chan agreed to meet with student leaders: Strachan later agreed to “fund a study” into higher education in the province.

The -———s occupation hi-lighted a week of ee” protest in B.C. There were also rallies in Victoria and Vancouver, organized by the Pacific region of Canada’s student federation.

About 150 students showed up to a Jan. 23 Simon Fraser board of governors meeting to de- mand a tuition fee freeze and a royal commission on ac- cessibility to post-secondary education.

But when the board ap- proved the fee increase, many of the students de- cided to stay.

The students disrupted the meeting with chants of “Freeze our Fees,” and moved to the centre of the board room. The meet- ing broke up, and the board members left.

At least 70 students de- cided to continue the sit-in. About 2,000 students came out to support them on the 24th, marching past the ad- minstration building, closed to all but security, the me- dia and building staff.

Numbers dwindled, but the students stayed until Jan. 25.

About 1,500 students marched in Victoria Jan. 23 to call for a tuition freeze as

part of the Canadian Feder- ation of Students- Pacific re- gion week of action on tu- ition fees.

University of ria student council executive Elizabeth Loughran said the commission was “common sense.”

“Really, what we are say-

ing is ‘We dare you to strike a royal commission to see what’s happening with our education system’,” she added. _. University of British Columbia students protested their adminstra- tion’s decision to raise tu- ition fees five per cent by carpeting the corridor out- side the university’s board room with a banner.

On the banner were were messages of student con- cerns. Students blocked all the exits except the one with the banner, forcing the gov-

ernors to walk on it as they.

left the meeting.

“Tt shows that the uni- versity is willing to walk all over students’ needs to get to what they want,” said student council execu- tive Vanessa Geary.

Tuition costs have in- creased 128 per cent at B.C. universities and over 300 per cent at colleges in the last decade. That makes post-secondary edu- cation the only provincial social program which has not been adjusted to match inflation since 1984.

Strachan. said the province didn’t “need a royal commission” to ad- dress B.C. student concerns.

“There’s a variety of so- lutions. A better financial aid program is one,” he said. ‘T think (it’s) the only one

because that’s what govern- .

Victo-

ment can do.” .

He also opposed a tuition freeze.

“IT think it’s very dan- gerous for me to be telling universities and community colleges what they should be doing,” he said. “Be- cause as soon as the min- ister of post-secondary ed- ucation says (tuition fees) should go down, the next minister will say they should go up for whatever reason. You don’t wan’t government doing that kind of meddling

with universities.”

At Concordia ...

Canadian Federation of Students-Pacific chair Pam Frache was pleased with Strachan’s proposals.

“We feel that this is a rea- sonable compromise,” she said. Frache said the CFS would now continue its lob- bying campaign an ensure the study “addressed the problems we face.”

Geary said the sponta- neous occupation at Simon Fraser turned the tide in the students favour.

Simon Fraser student council executive Christoph

Thursday, February lst, 1990

Sicking called the study a “small step. But it’s a step in the right direction. You don’t do these kinds of protests all the time, but this is one time they had an effect.”

At its Sunday January 28th meeting, the UPEI Stu- dent Union Council agreed to write a letter of support to the students of Simon Fraser University in their efforts for a tuition freeze and a Royal Commission on Post-Secondary Education.

Researchers may have key to safe PCB disposal

Concordia University Montreal, Quebec

by Aaron Derfel

A group of Concordia scientists say they may have discovered a safe and cheap way of destroying PCBs in oil so that it can be re- cycled.

Research vice-rector Cooper Langford said Concordia is the only university in Quebec working on this research. Although the three scientists have studied the project since last March, Langford said it looks highly promising.

“The key to our process is that we do it under mild conditions,” he said, explaining that the scientists have been able to destroy PCBs (polychlorinated biphyenyls) at under 100 degrees centigrade, or around boiling temperature.

The scientists have disintegrated PCBs in miniscule amounts of oil using a mixture of nitric.and sul- phuric acid while heating the toxic. chemical compound with micro- waves. After the chemical reac- tion, the PCBs disappear, leaving the oil uncontaminated.

’ The most widely used method of destroying PCBsis by burning them at 1,200 degrees centigrade. But

Langford said the incineration method is costly, destroys PCB- laced oil, and is potentially danger- ous.

One of the scientists working on the project, associate biology pro-

_ fessor Perry Anderson, said they

may be able to remove PCBs from electrical transformers without de- stroying the equipment. He said the process, called photo-mineraliza- tion, can also work with other haz- ardous chemicals.

“In principle everything seems

to be working very well, but we have to get in the actual products that are being used by firms such as Hydro-Quebec,” Anderson said. “We have yet to complete the work on samples of the nature that they use in transformers.” - The scientists did not begin the research in response to the PCB warehouse firein St. Basile le Grand last August, but stumbled on the discovery while studying some- thing else. The PCB fire forced 3,500 residents from their homes for 17 days and sent a toxic cloud over the region.

Langford said Concordia is ap- plying for a research patent and is

negotiating a grant with Hydro-

Quebec.

Hydro environment vice-presi- dent Louis Philippe Roy said the utility is interested in the Concor-

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