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ll. ‘de Monoton Students-Hold Moss”. V - , to Protest N.B. Student Aid Plan.
0 c c u p at io n Fredricton (CUP)-—-About five hundred students from me Unviersity of Monctbn, mve occupied the Centenni— fl_Building here, demanding mmrovements in the prov: mce's Student Aid Program. The occupation began on knuary 28, a week after an
earlier occupation attempt fizzled in the face of govf. ernment intransience. Stu— dents fromt eh U. de. M. participated in that attem- pt, but left when the other students abandoned the cod cupation the day it began.
‘ When the got back to
Student Council Decides 0n Constitutional Changes,
At its meeting last Sun— my night, Council decided loreccomend that major imnges be made in the Stu— .mt Union Constitution. In .Mer to go into effect, ~ey must still be passed .ya general meeting of the .mdent union to be held on tw. 4th at 7:00 pm in Duf- .yAmphitheatre.
At its previous meeting,’ mmcil was’presented«with‘ :proposal by Ray Shalala odivide Council into two -Mies, one dealing with =wdemic matters and the Ifimr with social matters. tealso wished that number 'fExecutive positions be wuced from five to three. mncil decided to postr IMe the decision on the tter until this week's imting. '
However on Sunday Mr. 'Mlala did not re-intro- 'We his proposal. Rather
Osimilar ones were put “Ward. One proposed by WmlJenkins, a Science aClflty representative and :Pported by Mr. Shalala ‘%gested that the Council isplit but that it meet 'jOint session about once
mmmh . He also wished Mt the number of ExeCut— vePositions be reduced tomfive to three with eChairman of each Coun— 1also sitting as a vot- ‘8member on the Executive mncil. '
The other, proposed by _°mdent 'Woozy' MacDonald 'Sthe same as the abOVe feXCept that there would
iVe Executives.
During the course of the meeting a third proposal was made-by Art Reddin, a Board of Governors repres- entative.
He thought.the.spliti Council was a good idea but the Executive Council sho— uld only retain three peo— ple.w
After a vote which last- ed a half hour, Mr. Jenkin's proposal was accepted.by a ’vote of 8—3—3.
In more detail the fol- lowing structure was rec— ommended by Council;
An Executive Session to consist of the President, 'the Treasurer, the Vice— President, and the chairh men of the other two Coun- cils;
An Academic Council to consist of the President, the Vice—President, one representative of each fac— ulty, the five Senate rep— resentatives, and the Bd. of Governors representa- tive;
‘A Business Council to consist of the President, the Treasuruer, the four class representatives, four representatives of the’ Arts Faculty, and two. representatives of they Science faculty;
And a Plenary Session of the two CounCils which“ would resolve disputes be- tween the two Councils.
The rationale behind the change, according to Mr. Jenkins is to make the Student Union both more ef- ficient and mpre aware of
' Academic matters.‘
‘Moncton they called a gen- eral meeting at which it was decided to organize for an occupation. Committees were established, logisti- cal planning began, and by mid—week'the students were on route to Fredricton.
The U de M students' de— mands'are the same as those
‘ advanced by the previous
week's demonstration on ’student aid policy, a red— uction in the loan ceiling from $1800 to $900 per year and increases in living and other allowances.
The students are occupy— ing the lobby of the buil— ding directly below the of— fices of the Premier, Rich— ard Hatfield. Hatfield em- erged about five o'clock the first day of the occu-g pation and read a prepared ‘speech in Frnech rejecting the studentfs demands, and claiming that no changes could be made in the prog— ram until federal legisla— tion is changed in 1977.
The rejected Hatfield's position and told him they would stay until their de— mands had been met. The stu— dents appointed a negotiat— ing committee~of two to meet with Hatfield and Youth Minister, J.P. Ouelette. Meetings were held that day and the following evening but no progress was report- ed-
In those meetings the government reiyteratéd its position that changes in the program cannot be made Until 1977, while the stu- dents maintain that changes must be made effective Sep- tember 1976. Negotiations are continuing and will likely go into the weekend (January 31).
Hatfield'honceded howe— ver that there are"some problems" with the student aidrplan, and has admitted that settinglthe loan cei— ling is a provincial rather than a federal responsibi— lity.
, The occupation has ach— ieved almost universal sup— port among U de M students and faculty and among high school students in the Mon— cton area. Six buses of high—School students are
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reportedly en route to join the occupation at the time of this writing. And on January 28, the U de M fac4 ulty decided to cancel classes indefinitely to support the occupation.
There has been little support from the UNB. Ob- servers say this is partly due to the conservative politcs and history of UNB, as well as the inexperience of the UNB student leader- ship in alerting students as to what is going on.
On the afternoon of the 28th about 15 students from UNB did arive and were gi— ,ven a tumultuous welcome from the other students in .the Lobby. Meetings on the UNB campus are being plan— ned to encourage other stu— dents to join in the occu— pation and other campuses in the province are report- edly chartering buses to take them to Fredericton.
The students in the lob- by are reported to be in high spirits, and are pas-’ sing the time reading, sin— ging and discussing. The organization has been des— cribed as excellent, with strike centres having been set up, courier service op— erating between Mbncton and Fredericton smoothly, and evnn film and tape units being present to record e—' vents.
Discipline has not been a problemusince the stude— nts have set up their own internal security in the occupation area, and no confrontation with RCMP or local policé are expected.