Over The Edge Page 2

NEws

February 24, 1998

Convocation: Where and When Will That Be Again?

By Les Praisley

If you are a graduate student

you are probably aware that
the Convocation Ceremony
has been changed, and
moved from Friday May 29th
to Monday June ist. This is
due to various reasons that
were explained in a meeting
held by President Jago and
Alex Reed, the Associate
Vice President of Student
Services. The. meeting was
open to all students but less
than fifteen were present to
hear the President’s explana-
tion.

The President explained
that the scheduling of the cer-
emony was done _ after
Convocation last year. The
faculty had noticed a couple
of problems with holding
Convocation on campus
again. First the Agora wasn’t
large enough to hold the cer-
emony due to the number of
graduates and all the faculty
which would be attending not
to mention the number of

guests which would be invit-
ed. Last year each graduate
was allowed to invite only
four guests and given the
larger graduating class this
year, that number would have
been diminished further. The
second problem was the
need for a second indoor
venue should the weather be
foul and force the ceremony
from the Agora Courtyard.
The plan that had been in
place in previous years was
should it rain the graduates
and faculty members would
be moved into the Canfor
Theater to finish the ceremo-
ny and all guests would be
ushered into classrooms to
watch it on the Dynacom sys-
tem. The President felt this
was completely unaccept-
able. For these reasons and
a few other minor ones such
as parking , washrooms,
sound systems and a recep-
tion areas the faculty began
to look for a new venue to

BC Parks
debated at

UNBC

By Aaron Mahoney
Prince George-Approx-
imately 200 students, mem-
ber of the public and UNBC
professors attended the
Natural Resource Society
(NRS) workshop; BC Parks,
at a cross road of change.
Moderated by UNBC’s own
Dr. Dave Robinson, five
questions were posed to pan-
elists drawn from the stake
holders of the Muskwa-
Kechika Protected Area. The
panelist were from Malaspina
University College, Rick
Rollins, Vice President of the
IWA local 1-424, Neil
Meagher, representing BC
Parks, District Manager
Peace’ River-Liard, Don
Roberts and Wayne
Swachuk representing the
BC Parks Legacy project.
Swachuk presented a slide
show of the new parks and

the fantastic areas that the
Muskwa-Kechika protects.
Moderator Robinson then
grilled the panelists and
opened the floor up to ques-

tions. The majority of ques- .

tions surrounded the issues
of stable parks funding and
whether BC Parks would lose
its authority if it sought alter-
native sources funding. One
of the questions was “Given
the current fiscal restraints
how do you see BC Parks
being able to manage the
already under-funded park
system? Are there alterna-
tives?”

District Manager Roberts
said that BC Parks is looking
to volunteers, sponsorship
and user fees to supplement
the budget.

continued for Page 5

hold the ceremony at. They
booked the Civic Center
shortly after last year’s
Convocation and everything
seemed all right until
November when the faculty
noticed that the date that had
been booked at the Civic
Center was Monday June 1st
not May 29th as it was sup-
posed to be. The faculty
attempted to move _ the
Convocation date back to the
original date but the Civic
Center was already booked
and so was the campus.
When President Jago and
Alex Reed held the meeting
to inform the students of the
changes the faculty had
already decided that the Civic
Center was still their best
option, even though they
could not get the day they
wanted. Other facilities such
as the College of New
Caledonia’s gymnasium,
Prince George Senior
Secondary’s gymnasium and
the Coliseum had been sys-
tematically ruled out. The fac-
ulty weighted the pros and
cons of each possible site
and the Civic Centre won, but
on the 1 of June. The date
could not be changed back
because, due to Senior
Secondary Graduations and
various conferences, all of
the facilities had already
been booked. During this

meeting the President
brought forth the option of the
Multi-Plex which had good
parking, adequate washroom
facilities, a place for a recep-
tion and a stage , best of all
graduates could bring as
many guest as they wished.

Alex Reed and President
Jago went to the Multi-Plex
after the meeting with the stu-
dents and proceeded to book
the Multi-Plex, a superior
venue to anything else avail-
able. The faculty then began
to notify students of the
change. The faculty admits
that they made a mistake, a
very large mistake, and they
tried as quickly as possible to
organize a new venue that
would be better than the Civic
Center or the Agora. When
the decision came about the
dates either the 28 of May or
the 1 of June it was a fifty-fifty
guess and unfortunately for
some it was the ist that was
chosen.

To many students this is
simply unacceptable. It will
mean that many will end up
paying another month’s rent
and having plans that were
set for June ruined due to the
fact that the ceremony could-
n’t be held in May. Students
were also concerned with the
fact that when the mistake
was discovered in mid
November and they were not

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informed until January. By
that time a decision had
already been made by the
President's Council which did
not even have student repre-
sentation. One thing can be
said in favour of a decision by
council at least President
took it to council instead of
making it on his own. Why
students weren't involved in
this decision wasn’t
explained but is important.
Some prominent students
feel that the faculty does not
even want students involved
in the decision making
process. All in all some of the
students and graduates of
UNBC are not happy with the
decisions of the faculty or
with the faculty itself.

As a closing to all this Alex
Reed speaks for the faculty
when he says, “ We are sorry
for the mistake which was
caused by this decision.”
Even though this was a mis-
take by the faculty it must
mean something to the stu-
dents that the faculty would
admit its mistake and apolo-
gize for it.

As it stands now
Convocation will be held at
the Multi-Plex on Monday
June ist and even though
some people are angry with
this decision it is not likely to
change in the near future.

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