200s,.5.6

THE EDGE

WELLER WALKS

HE FEELS IT IS TIME TO PASS ON THE TORCH AND RETURN TO TEACHING

by Manpreet Sidhu

At a staff meeting on
the 10th of November,
President Weller made the
announcement that he will
step down. This resignation
comes just two months after
Vice-President Academic
Ken Coates stepped down
from his position to teach
History at UNBC.

In a press statement, he
says, "I am proud to have
been Founding President of
UNBC." Yet he continues on
to say that the role of the
Founding President and the
President are different. .

His resignation was
accepted by the Chair of the
Board of Governors, Horst
Sander. "It was with great
regret the I received the
resignation of Geoffrey
Weller. He has been such a
constant part of the
University, and so closely
associated with all its
achievements to date, it is
difficult .to imagine him

- BITCHING FOR ACCESS

by Dionne Olsen

Winter has finally
arrived in Prince George, and the
snow is here to stay. As far as
safety, the snow made the
sidewalks from residence toe the
university a treacherous path to
be walking. Unfortunately, the
sidewalks then became worse.
With the weather warming
slightly, the top layer of snow
melted during the day. Of
course, as the temperature

dropped again that night, a layer
of ice formed.

These conditions not
only posed a problem for those
who have complete physical
capabilities, it became an
unusable route for anyone with a
physical handicap. The question
that then linged in many students
minds was this: If the residence
and the university is handicap
accessible and designed to cater
to their needs, why are the
sidewalks not kept clear?

The Housing
Department was the first to
receive the students’ angry
complaints. On Wednesday,

November 2, Randall Brazzoni
reassured them that a
“professional” ice chipper had
been contracted to take care of

the problem. This was
accomplished only after students
had bitched to Resident
Advisors, who passed the

message on to Mr. Brazzoni that
sanding the sidewalks was not
adequate. When sand is put onto
ice, as many students quickly
learned, it does not help. After
several people walk on it, the
sand gets kicked off the
sidewalk. So, students awaited
the arrival of the contractor with
some anticipation, especially
those students with handicaps.

To straighten this mess
one had to go to the
that is actually

out,
department

responsible for alleviating this

problem. The responsibility lies
with the Facilities Department.
The weekend came and
went
attempts to clear the ice, snow
and _— slush. On Tuesday,
November 8, a student went to
the. Facilities Department and

bitched in person. The reaction
(Continued on page 8)

without any signs of ff

taking his leave," he says.

At a press conference
held in his office later on the
same day, Weller delineated
his reasons for leaving.

Tn these past. four years
he has helped build the
University from the ground
up and is very satisfied with
the result. In his statement,
he declares "I am elated that
the plans laid over more than
four years have come to such
magnificent fruition."

He felt that his job was -

done on the day that all of the
UNBC -employees moved
into their permanent offices
on the campus. The start-up
phase of the university is now
over and he feels that it is
time for someone else to step
in and face the new set of
challenges.

Weller, who considers
himself an academic before
an administrator, will stay on
at UNBC as a professor of

political science. He has a
research grant from the
Social Sciences and

Humanities Research Council
to do research on
comparisons of security and
intelligence work and would
like to continue researching
this field.

Weller has been an

“It was with great
regret that I received
the resignation of
Geoffrey Weller”

academic for 30 years and he
has been an administrator for
only twelve of these thirty.
He was academic Vice-
President at Lakehead
University for five years
before he came to British
Columbia.

The resignation will
become effective on June 30,
1995. He said that he would
like time to rest and prepare
for his classes.

Horst Sander, the Chair
of the Board of Governors,
said that the Board will meet

(Continued on page 8)