6

NEWS

OVER THE EDGE NEWSPAPER. NOVEMBER 22, 2006

University Faculty Association Calls For

Investigation of Private Post-Secondary Schools:
Report on Lansbridge University to be completed by end of month, ministry says

BY ERIC SZETO AND WESTERN BUREAU CHIEF
CUP WESTERN BUREAU CHIEF

VANCOUVER (CUP) -- Officials
are crying for more investigations of
schools they believe may be operating il-
legally in B.C. after a government-sanc-
tioned inspection of a private post-sec-
ondary institution -- the second owned
by the Kingston Education Group.

“We certainly believe that there are
other colleges in the province operat-
ing illegally,’ said Robert Clift, executive
director of the Canadian University Fac-
ulty Associations of B.C. Clift said he
has been approached by “various people”
with concerns about other institutions,
but that he “cant name institutions until
this evidence is corroborated.”

The latest school to come urider
scrutiny is Lansbridge University -- a
Vancouver-based school with a student
population of about 300.

Four international students attending
Kingston College in Burnaby allege that
they were offered degrees from Lans-
bridge as compensation when Kingston
was unable to. provide them with the
MBA degrees theyd been promised.
The students were paying $15,000 a
year to attend Kingston.

Following the allegations, the Private

Career Training Institutions Agency
(PCTIA), a watchdog group that mon-
itors private post-secondary schools in
B.C., requested the province inspect the
institution,

Kingston College, which is also run
by the Kingston Education Group, had
been ordered’ to shut down oni Oct. 4
after an investigation by PCTIA te-
vealed the school had been offering de-
grees from unrecognized post-second-
ary institutions for the past six years.

‘The provincial government has since
ordered an inspection to ensure that

_ Lansbridge is meeting the terms and

conditions required for B.C. universities
to operate. A report is expected to be
ready by the end of November,

The ministry, said Jennifer McCrea,
communications director at the Min-
istry of Advanced Education, has not
been called to do inspections of any
other institutions despite additional al-
legations.

Anna Burke, vice-president of the
Kingston Education Group, has yet to
hear from the inspector but said that
the heightened sense of paranoia accom-

~ panying the Kingston shutdown is cre-

ating misperceptions about Lansbridge.
“{The provincial government] has

every right to do so,’ said Burke. “We
welcome an inspection that clears the
uncertainty and clears the air and re-

builds the confidence.”

To further dispel rumors about Lans-
bridge, she said that student representa-
tives have started a petition assuring the
government that they have received a
high-quality education.

Clift, however, anticipates that Lans-
bridge will be shut down when the prov-
incial government releases the report.

“I think there's enough grounds to
suggest that Lansbridge will not be able
to operate in B.C. when this is all said
and done,’ said Clift.

In order to avert these situations in
the future, Clift is pushing for manda-
tory auditing of private institutions to
act as a deterrent for illegal opérations,
while closing up existing loopholes in
the University Act, which currently al-
lows institutions the authorization to
grant degrees in B.C. if they have educa-
tion operations in other countries.

The Kingston Education Group also
operates a Lansbridge University campus
in Fredericton, N.B., a Chinese school in
the Lower Mainland, two high schools
in China, and Learnsoft Corporation,
an educational software company.

Mega-hospitals look at private

funding

Escalating construction costs delay two planned facilities

BY DANIEL HERCZ
THE MCGILL DAILY (MCGILL UNIVERSITY)

MONTREAL (CUP) -- In an at-
tempt to address the expected inflation
of construction costs, the planning com-
mittees of Montreal's two impending
mega-hospitals are looking into private
funding.

Last week, Quebec Health Minister
Philippe Couillard announced that the
two hospitals would not be completed
by 2010 as planned, since extra time is
requited to reduce construction costs.

The government has proposed set-
ting up private-public partnerships with
outside investors to address further in-
creases in the development costs of the
two new hospitals. It will decide on the
matter in December.

According to Quebec's largest med-
ical labour union, the Confédération des.
syndicats nationaux (CSN); private in-

Tips for Family History Research/
Geneaology —
Professors are smarter hin ou think.
Sure, they have degrees and read lots of
books, bur they also have a few hidden
talents you might not know about. In
these features, we find these talents and
share them with you, thus doing our

part to bring about world peace.

‘This month: Political Science profes-
sor Gary Wilson teaches you how. to
get in touch with your roots through

geneaology,
1. Interview your family members, es-

vestment in the hospitals would under-
mine public health care.

“These actions setve to privatize the
profits and socialize the risk,’ explained
Lyle Steward, spokeman for CSN.

Dr. David Eidelman, physician-in-
chief of the McGill University Health
Centre, called the mega-hospitals part
of a major government restructuring of
how health care functions in Montreal.

The mega-hospitals will be affiliated
with McGill University and Université
de Montréal, and combined they will
centralize Montreal health care into two
locales.

In 2004, a technical feasibility com-
mission reported that the McGill mega-
hospital project was grossly under-fund-
ed. The commission, headed by former
Conservative prime minister Brian Mul-
roney, recommended that the hospital
either accept funding from private back-
ers or downsize the institution.

Useful Ti

pecially the older members of your fam-

about the past and can be an important
resource for your research (especially if
you are starting from scratch)

2. That being said, take what your
family members say with a grain of salt,

Your great aunt Mabel’s story about the

family being distantly related to roy-
alty should probably be treated with a
healthy degree of skepticism, You will
eventually need to back up any story

with documentation (birth certificates,

ily, while they are still with you, They.
“usually have a wealth of knowledge

Private-public partnerships have al-
ready been used for hospitals in other
parts of Canada. In many cases, hospi-
tals are owned by the private sector and
leased back for public use.

Thomas Philpott, senior advisor to the
executive office of the McGill University
Health Centre, said even if the hospitals
were to be partly privately funded, they
should still be viewed as owned by the
public.

“Te can be looked at as a mortgage one
takes out on his house,’ he said.

But Steward said that private interests
would get in the way of public health
and safety, He pointed to a protest a year
and a half ago at the Montreal Children’s
Hospital in response to its private food
supplier, Sodexho, replacing the soup
served to children with potato chips.

“Safety will become a secondary con-
cern,’ he said.

marriage certificates, census results, etc)
in order for itto be credible,”
3. Be prepared to find a few skeletons

in your family closet. I found our char

my. grandmother's older sisters were
born out of wedlock (back in the early
1900s, this was extremely shocking).
What was even more shocking for me
was that my 80 year grandmother was

totally unaware of this fact. Suffice ic

to say that I cried to break it to her as
gently as possible.

4. Watch out for false leads and dead-
ends. Try to confirm your findings with

Harper Governernment Hasn't
Been Good To Education

NADYA BELL
OTTAWA (CUP)

After a 15-minute-meeting with the
Prime Minister, Phillippe Ouellette, na-
tional director of the Canadian Alliance
of Student Associations, had a big smile
on his face.

“We had him boxed in,’ Ouellette said
quickly, “so he was trying to get out and
the students were like, ‘Okay, hold on
now, we have a couple more questions
for you’. . . We're students, right,’ he
continued.” We got our 10 minutes with
the PM and we're going to make sure it's
all about the questions.’

The Canadian Alliance of Student
Associations (CASA) is an network of
student associations and student unions.
The group represents about 250,000
students across Canada.

As part of the CASA national confer-
ence, Ouellette and other student repre-
sentatives met with over 150 members
of Parliament, senators, and civil ser-
vants, including Stephen Harper and
John Baird, president of the Treasury
Board.

CASAs message to parliamentarians
is to create a dedicated transfer payment
for post-secondary education to the
provinces, sign a national post-second-
ary education accord, and increase total
funding to $4 billion.

But Ouellette says the $4-billion fig-
ure is largely an estimate, because federal
funding to universities is combined with
other funding in transfer payments,
making it impossible to tell how much
money is there for post-secondary edu-
cation.

Ouellette said Harper was vague in his:

answers, but other Conservative party

members have hinted that there will be

something for post-secondary education
in the fiscal update this November.

Last year during the fiscal update, the
Liberal government announced billions

os From Professors

as much documentation and cross-refer-

some piece of information is correct just

because it seems that way. The last thing

you want is to spend 6 months pains-
takingly researching 10 generations of
your great- grandfather's ancestors, only
to find out that the John Smith you
thought was your great-grandfather was
in fact nor related to you ar all.

5, Take advantage of local resources.

The Church of Jesus Chrise of Latter-

day Saints (Mormon Church) has free _
archives containing birth, marriage and —

NADYA BELL
CASA Map of Student Problems, Ottaway Nov. 26

encing as possible and don't assume that

of dollars for post-secondary
education and student aid.
The money never material-
ized because the figures were
projections for the future,
and the Liberals lost the
election.

“There wasnt anything
that I can really come out of
this meeting and say, ‘Well,
he promised us this,” Ouel-
lette said.

“He is saying that things
, are coming, and they will
stay crue to their election
promises.”

One Conservative election
promise was fix the fiscal im-
balance by changing how the

federal government gives money to the
provinces. A dedicated transfer payment

for post-secondary education -- similar
to the way health-care money is given
to the provinces in a separate transfer
-- could be part of the fiscal imbalance
solution.

But Ouellette says the education
transfer should happen ‘regardless, as
the fiscal imbalance ‘is a much larger
problem.

Despite his satisfaction with getting
to meet the Prime Minister, Ouellette
says the Harper government has not
been good to education.

“They have yet to provide Canadians
with a strong pan-Canadian vision for
post-secondaty education. While stu-
dents have been waiting for such vision,
problems such as student debt and in-
effective student financial aid: systems
have continued to persist.’ —

Ouellette said the two main problems
students face are high tuition fees, and
cuts to the summer youth employment
program.

Individual students wrote the biggest
challenge they face in getting a post-sec-
ondary education on fabric footprints,
which were pasted to cover a map of
Canada. Student answers varied from
debt and time to proper nutrition.

One participant in the CASA con-
ference, Zachary Daylar, a student at
Acadia University, said he is talking to
senatots about extending the mandate
of the Millennium Scholarship Founda-
tion, Although the senators have no say
in the matter, he says raising the debate
is important.

» CASA lobby documents show the

groups is also asking for Canada Ac-
cess Grants to be increased and offered
to more students, and that funding for
aboriginal students is increased.

cénsus records from around the world.
‘These archives are open to the general
public {and nor just members of the

‘Chutch). Join a local genealogical soci-

ety. The Prince George Geneaological
Society has lots of resources, including
members who have a great deal of ge-
nealogical experience and can set you on

the right track.

Gary Wilson has ens his fam-

ily tree back to the 1700s. And no, he
hasnt found anyone famous, but his

mother insists that her Starr is a aie

tant cousin.’