Continued from page 4
you invision what a powerful
force our student council
would be if even just the stu-
dents that voted them in their
positions rallied behind
them? As a result of having a
strong student council sup-
ported by the students, can
you imagine the power and
benefits we as_ students
would enjoy?

But what good does it do
for me to be there, as | don't
have a vote, as I’m not on the
Board one might ask. Every
person in that room has a
voice if they want to use it.
Anybody can speak up by just
raising your hand and getting
put on the speakers list. It is
encouraged, as the board is
there representing the stu-
dents and if you are there and
speak up as to what you as a
student want, it makes their
job easier as it eliminates the
guess work. Your presence
there also guarantees
accountability by NUGSS to
the students. The saddest
reason of all is that you don’t

to get involved. In my experi-
‘ence it is usually these same
people that scream the loud-
est when things happen that
they don’t agree with at the
government level. This is our
government in this communi-
ty of UNBC. What happens at
those meetings affects every
student one way or another
and whether it is a positive or
negative affect is up to each
student and their involvement
in the process. Without a stu-
dent council to represent us
we would be totally at the
mercy of faculty and adminis-
tration all alone. Our student
council is the catalyst that
unites us when it comes to
dealing with the powers that
be. Without your input they
are forced to do this job
guessing what you as a stu-
dent want based upon their
own desires, which is not
always successful.

|, myself attend these
meetings out of obligation pri-
marily to myself but also out
of concern for those students
that absolutely can’t attend

Letters

family obligations, or work
schedules. My obligation to
myself comes from the fact
that we live in an imperfect
world and if | don’t actively
take part in changing that
world, then | have only myself
to blame for it’s affect on me.
This School is a big part of
my world for the next few
years and | pay a lot of money
to be here. | want my stay
here to be as profitable as
possible and as comfortable
as possible. NUGSS has the
power to make that possible
for me and they also have the
power to do just the opposite.
The difference is_ totally
based upon my input in the
process.

| would like to express my
appreciation to Saleem
Dossa for having performed
an often-thankless job over
the past year and a half as
chairperson on the NUGSS
board. It is a hard and stress-
ful position and the sad thing
is that when he stepped
down, everyone was so
absorbed in his or her own

to say “Thank-you-Job well
done.”

| would like to thank all
those, students and faculty,
that supported the National
Day of Action rally that took
place on Feb.02,2000.As a
result of the uncertainty of
strike action and the work
NUGSS had to do to secure
student education interests,
the board only had two days
to prepare for the rally. | was
really impressed at how fast a
committee was formed and
put into action. For everyone
involved: the board, the com-
mittee, the speakers, the fac-

.ulty that supported me when |

spoke in their classes and
that came up and shared
there advice and experiences
at the rally, the poster
painters who also taught my
eighteen month old daughter
how to body paint, the stu-
dents taking care of the peti-
tion table, all those students
that spoke up LOUD N
PROUD at the rally, CNC
supporters, the media that
were there interviewing stu-

research and organizing and
most importantly all the stu-
dents that came out and
showed their = support-
THANK-YOU!!!-and take
pride in what we did.

Before | close, I’m looking
for student input on two pro-
jects, namely:

1) An online newspaper that
will work in conjunction with
NUGSS website-
www.nugss.com

2) A coffee house possibly
called The Cosmic Lounge
situated by the computer labs
featuring jam sessions, poet-
ry readings, big Screen T.V,
and non-alcoholic beverages
and sandwiches, muffins, etc
as eats.

If you have any ideas and
input or pros and cons views,
e-mail me at: artjory@hot-

mail.com or at:
J Or yrae@: un bie ca
Your fellow student...

Sincerely, Art Jory ©

care or just can’t be bothered due to course scheduling, agendas that they didn’t think dents, Moe for all his

by: Ryan McCormick

Last October, | travelled to
Veracruz, Mexico to attend
the inaugural meeting of the
North American Students
Forum.

| arrived in Veracruz in the
evening of. Sunday, October
24, and spent that evening
meeting other participants
and exploring the area sur-
rounding the hotel. The next
morning, we all woke up early
and went on a tour of
Veracruz. It is a beautiful city,
with colourful people and no
lines on the road. We spent
the afternoon walking around
downtown, exploring, eating
real Mexican food (nothing
like the tacos that we have in
Canada), shopping, meeting
people and generally getting
to know the city.

That evening, | registered for
the forum and heard opening
speeches by Edward N.
Morgan, the NASF Co-ordi-
nator, and Fransisco
Marmolejo, the Executive
Director of the Consortium for
North American Higher
Education Collaboration
(CONAHEC). CONAHEC is

an organization of post-sec-
ondary education administra-
tors, faculty members,
researchers and others who's
goal it is to build a North
American academic commu-
nity. In order to involve stu-
dents in this, CONAHEC
decided to launch tha NASF.
After dinner, we all went
downtown to a place called
“Dawson's Saloon” and got to
know each other better, this
time in a more social environ-
ment.

The next morning, the forum
really got going. Franck
Biancheri, the founding
President of the European
Student Forum, arrived from
Paris and spoke about some
of the problems and solutions
that his organization encoun-
tered during it’s formation ten
years ago. He gave us many
suggestions that would serve
as a guideline for the forma-
tion of the NASF. For
instance, he suggested we
de-emphasize or even elimi-
nate the national levels of
forum. In other words, instead
of making the NASF a con-
nection between national stu-

dent organizations from
Canada, the USA _ and
Mexico, it would be based on
individual students from any
of the three countries.

Next, we broke off into small-
er working groups to help lay
the groundwork for specifics
of the forum. There were six
working groups: NASF board,
communications, member-
ship, local chapters, purpose,
and outreach. | particpiated in
the purpose group. At this
point in the forum, communi-
cation became very difficult.
First of all, there were French,
English and Spanich speak-
ing people there, and during
the working groups, there
were no translators. Second,
cultural differences became a
major obstacle to communi-
cations. For example, the sys-
tem known as “Robert’s
rules,” with motions and sec-
onders and other such con-
cepts was used as is com-
mon practice in Canada and
the USA, but in Mexico, peo-
ple use other systems. The
resulting confusion and lack
of communication made it
very difficult for our working

group to accomplish any-
thing: Also, we didn’t really
know what “purpose”
entailed, and there was no
facilitator to help us out.
Later, each working group
presented it’s conclusions to
the whole group and | soon
realized that all of the working
groups had had similar diffi-
culties as ours in raching any
sort of consensus. In short,
the results were that we
would leave membership
open to any undergraduate or
graduate student, or to any-
one who had been a student
within the last few years
(details are lacking) and that
a local chapter of the NASF
could be established by any-
one at any school anywhere
in North America. The local
chapters would be the access
point for students to the orga-
nization.

That evening, we all visited a
local cafe, heard some music
for a while and then went
back to the hotel and sat
around the pool for quite a
while, talking and winding
down from the day’s tensions.
The next morning, a few par-

ticipants spoke about the
NASF at the opening session
of the CONAHEC meeting
which was also being held in
Veracruz. Although we had
reached few conclusions,
they decided our biggest
accomplishment: that we met,
conversed, opened a dia-
logue and laid the ground-
work for an organization that
will continue into the future.
This is the same conclusion |
have about the NASF.
Forming an organization like
this will take al long time. This
meeting was only a first step.
Although we did not accom-
plish much and had many dif- .
ficulties and even arguments,
an important first step was
made, and the groundwork
was laid, so that within the
next few years, the NASF will
continue to develop and
eventually become a very
useful organization for stu-
dents at UNBC and every-
where else in North America.
Since October, discussion
has continued through e-mail
and local chapters have
begun to develop in

Continued on page 9