The Cadre + 7 April 1998 Nfld government puts $4-million into scholarships BY MICHAEL CONNORS ST. JOHN’S (CUP) — Ina provincial budget that gave a little something to everyone, the Newfoundland government promised $4-million in schol- arships for post-secondary stu- dents but no tuition freeze. The government will provide enough money for 4,000 need- and merit-based awards worth up to $1,000 each, Finance Minister Paul Dicks announced in the March 26 budget speech. The pro- gram, to be active for the next two years, will bridge the fund- ing gap between next fall and the year 2000, when the Ot- UE Uu 2 & Ua Au a mae Sh EU 3Qem-5 30pm Monday, Wednesday. & Saturday $:00am-$00pm Thursday & Friday tawa-sponsored Millennium Fund is due to start The actual form the scholarship program will take and the criteria for tapping into the funds, however, have not been set. These matters will be determined over the sum- mer by a committee of educa- tion stakeholders that will in- clude. “I! do think there has been a very substantial invest- ment here on behalf of stu- dents,” Premier Brian Tobin said. “I think we've listened to the representation we’ ve heard and I would be disappointed if that were not acknowledged. And I think it will be by the student leadership.” Student leaders, who were expecting no more than a$500,000 scholarship _fol- “We went into the budget expecting the worst,” Tracey O'Reilly, Memorial University’s student union president, said. “We've been lobbying for a grant system for along time. We said, ‘If you're going to dothis, you have todo it right.” There’s no sense in putting just $500,000 in, and that’s what they were talking about.” But O'Reilly adds this new scholarship program has the same problem as the Mil- lennium Fund because it over- are already in debt, and there’s really nothing for them in this budget,” she said O'Reilly says the state of the province's loan remis- sion program needs to be looked at next, because not enough students are qualifying for it. Dale Kirby, chair of the Newfoundland component of the Canadian Federation of Stu- dents, says the money put into scholarships was better than nothing, but adds the help it provides will be reduced be- cause the government didn’t allocate anything to freeze ris- ing tuition fees at the prov- ince’s only university “Any time $4-million ts injected into post-secondary education, it’s a good thing,” he said. “But it’s difficult to support when you look at the fact that they're climinating $3-million from Memorial's the budget. It’s probably a good example of robbing Peter to pay Paul.” Memorial University is entering the final year of a three-year budget plan which has seen its grant cut by $14-million since 1996. Tuition fees, which currently stand at about $3,200 a year for a full course load, are sched- uled to increase by 5 per cent this summer to offset part of the cut. Memorial's operating budget will be roughly $100- million next year. Memonial president Art May says the university can handle this year’s cut, but adds if the trend continues, the school will run out of manocu- vring room. “We must have more versity,” he said pushed tuition fees as hard as they can be pushed. I don’t | think it’s logical for the gov- ernment to put out [money] for | Millennium scholarships, and then for universities to take [it] back through fee increases.” The government did, however, stabilize funding for the provincial public college system, although Kirby says | college students could still be | looking at a 10 per cent tuition fee increase next fall. Education Minister Roger Grimes says he under- stands the budget didn’t ad- dress all student concerns. “It won't be to their to- tal satisfaction,” he said.* {But} — a rt) government doesn’t have the fiscal capability to institute across-the-board measures such as tuition freezes, or tui- Other spending initia- tives in the budget included $2. 1-million for youth employ- ment and $50-million for construc- tion and upgrading of primary and schools. With a projected deficit of $10-million next year, the province is also spending moncy to stabilize health and social programs, in- percent over the next three years and putting an extra $30- million into health care. The budget, which gen- erally spread small amounts of moncy around to all sectors, also included no new taxes and a 7 percent pay increase for public servants. With files from Sean Ryan money from the government _ next year or we must change the size and shape of the uni- . “We've | Tel: 368-8337 185 T.C.H., Cornwall | Sell your current textbooks for cash @ THE BARN April 16&17 from 12-6pm oene 20 The Book Emporium (628-2001) nS