Liberals Cut 10,000 Student Jobs

By Stephanie Wilson

To freeze or not to freeze...
the Ministry of Advanced
Education still has not decid-
ed on the answer. Neither
have the students them-
selves. According to Minister
of Advanced Education
Shirley Bond, there was a
“mixed set of opinions from
students” regarding the min-
istry’s bid to either continue
the tuition freeze or raise
tuition.

“The majority of students
wanted to maintain or elimi-

the role of the private sector.
“We need to explore opportu-
nities. The government can’t
do everything,” said Bond.

Currently, the ministry is
looking into increasing the
number of private trainers in
the province. Secondly, it
means tuition in BC under the
current government _ will
never be free.

Bond feels it is important
for students to contribute to
their education financially.
“Students benefit from that.”

An increase in tuition could

nate tuition completely,” said conceivably lead to an
Bond. One concern was a_ increase in the need for stu-
cents “The majority of students nat sage a
the second- eae dito — sls Bond main-
lowest tuition ' aemans uition tains that the
in Canada, Completely,” said Bond. government

yet Bond believes that is not
a reflection uf a BC educa-
tion.

According to the Ministry of
Advanced Education’s
2002/03 - 2004/05 Service
Plan Summary, the ministry
is aiming for “Better align-
ment between costs and ben-
efits—to ensure that the
costs of post-secondary edu-
cation are aligned with the
benefits it provides. This
implies determining the
appropriate share of costs
among government,  stu-
dents, their families, and the
private sector.”

What does this mean for
students? For one, it means
we may see an increase in

Timber-Wolves Update

By Diane Hypolite

The UNBC Timber-wolves
Men’s and Women’s: basket-
ball teams both played their
first home games_ on
Saturday, January 12,against
the UCC Sun Demons.
That’s about all our respec-
tive teams had in common for
that day, however.

The Women’s team defeat-
ed the Sun Demons 56-55,
bringing themselves to a 4-5
standing in the BCCAA, and
sliding comfortably into 5th
place. Part of their success
could be attributed to the
addition of a ‘new’ player,

“will look after those most in
need.”

Programs such as the Loan
Forgiveness Program are
also helping out nursing and
medical students. For every
year they work in an under-
serviced area, the govern-
ment will forgive 20% of their
BC Student Loan. In other
words, you can work off your
loan in five years. There is no
word as to wether the pro-
gram will ever be applied to
other faculties.

The ministry has also not
considered increasing the
time students have to pay
back their loans.

Heather Hausot. Coming
back from a brief hiatus,
Hausot has taken the posi-
tion of Forward, although her
old number, 13 has been
reassigned to another player.
Loralyn. Murdoch expects
that Hausot will bring added
strength and determination to
the team. It’s a pretty good
call, concerning their win
over the weekend.

On the other hand, the
Men’s basketball team didn't
do as well. They were
defeated by the 5-3 Sun
Demons in a score of 97-86.
They have dropped down to

By Amber MacLeod

On Jan. 17, commonly
known as Black Thursday,
the Liberal government of
B.C. drastically injured post
secondary students all
around the province. The
most extreme portion of this
exists in the cancellation of
funding for several. key
employment programs
designed particularly for stu-
dents. These include the
Workstudy program, Student
Summer Works program, the
Youth Community Action pro-

gram, and the _ Industry
Trading Apprenticeship
Commission.

The Workstudy program is
the funding of post-sec-
ondary institutions to hire stu-
dents on campus. This is a
primary means of income for
students whose loans did not
cover their assessment of
need for the study term, and
also often the only way for
international students to work
at all. The Student Summer
Works program and Youth
Community Action program
allowed students to work for
businesses off-campus _ in
exchange for skills pertaining
to their programs.

Similarly, the Industry
Training and Apprenticeship
Commission which is rather
self-explanatory, followed
suit. The Canadian

eighth place in the BCCAA.
However, a turnabout is still
possible, so keep watch on
the Timber-wolves home
games.

Also on_ update: The
Wolfpack Cross-Country Ski
team scored first place in two
of the races at the BC Cup #
1 Races. Congratulations
must go out to Barb Sharp
who scored 1st in the Senior
Women’s Classic (5 km) and
the Senior Women’s Sprints
(850 m).

Federation of Students esti-
mates that end result of these
cuts will be the loss of 10,000
jobs for post secondary stu-
dents around British
Columbia.

But this is just the begin-
ning. According to the
Canadian Federation of
Students, the Provincial gov-
ernment is also changing the
Ministry of Advanced
Education organizational
structure to “substantially
increase the role of the pri-
vate post-secondary institu-
tions in British Columbia to
give private institutions the
authority to grant B.C.
degrees; authority that is cur-
rently limited to public univer-
sities, public university-col-
leges, and special-purpose
public institutes.”

This means that money
may soon dictate the quality
of education in this province
also. Yet, this is not the end.
Not only has the Provincial
government axed the means
of income for a gigantic quan-
tity of individuals, but it has
also slapped the student
financial assistance process-
ing office with almost a 1/3
staff cut. This means that if
you thought your loan or
grant took a long time last
year, just wait, and we mean
that literally.

Now, one may expect that

The rest of the scores are
as follows:

Junior Men’s Classic (15
km): Andrew Macdonald, 4th

Senior Men’s Classic (15
km): Matt Chant, 8th; Scott
McMillan, 17th

Junior Men’s Sprint (850
m): Colin Philips, 3rd;
Andrew Macdonald, 4th

Senior Men’s sprint (850
m): Scott McMillan, 9th

Senior Women’s Sprint
(850 m): Julia Gerlach, 5th.

Congratulations, UNBC!

many students who inadver-
tently voted “Liberal” on their
ballots last year are slapping
their foreheads and crying
out “WHAT was | THINK-
ING???” oh well. This is what
we get.

The elimination of student
employment programs, and
the simultaneous subtle
transference of influence
from the public post sec-
ondary institutions to a two-
division system, representing
separately the interests of
public and private institutions
spells bad news for students
in the months, and possibly
years to come.

On February 6th the
Canadian Federation of
Students is attempting to
organize a_province-wide
demonstration to show the
government that students
object severely to these latest
cuts. For more information,
contact Rob Mealy at the
CNC division of the Canadian
Federation of Students.
Phone 563-7415 or email:
cncsa @cnc.be.ca.

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