November 24,-2004 — | Page 5

Communities Pledge Assistance NEWS

New trust to provide opportunity for northern medical students

By CorREY SCOFIELD STAFF WRITER

In a move to support UNBC’s new medical program and attract medical students to rural practices throughout the north, a total of 20 communities throughout the North Peace region of the province have pledged to establish an endowment fund of $6 million by 2007.

The endowment fund will be

used to assist medical students ~

from the North Peace region with the cost of their studies.

Known as the Northern Medical Program Trust (NMPT), the Trust has received pledges from commu- nities such as Hudson’s Hope, Fort

St. John and Taylor, as well as -

Areas B and C of the Peace River Regional District, who have pledged a total of $547,680 towards the Trust to ensure ade- quate opportunities for students wishing to pursue medicine from the North Peace region.

To date, northern BC communi- ties have already raised well over $1.1 million in pledges and dona- tions and it is hoped that by sup- porting medical students from the region, communities in the north will be able to attract a stable and sufficient supply of physicians, which would have a significant impact on local health care, quality

of life, long term community sta- bility and economic development.

Realizing that it is the communi- ty that understands its particular health care needs the most clearly, the Trust, though managed by the university, will be overseen by boards of directors from every community involved.

These boards of directors, along with their fundraising assistance, will determine the Trust’s alloca- tion criteria, as well as advise the university on its particular health care needs. What’s more, northern- ers are permitted to be a part of the admissions panels that will help interview and select students for admission to UNBC medical school (the application is on the UNBC website). An indication of the real grass roots approach being taken with UNBC’s Medical Program.

With a starting point of $6 mil- lion, is it expected that the trust will accrue a total of $300,000 in annual interest, and those funds will be used to provide financial assistance to students who wish to practice in rural communities.

Students of UNBC’s medical program will face significant financial challenges, given trans- portation costs between UBC, UNBC and throughout the rural north. Annual tuition costs for

UNBC’s medical program (includ- ing, tuition, books, travel, etc.) are projected to be in excess of $25,000. It is expected that students provid- ed with funds from the trust will have to commit to a number of years in rural medicine before being permitted to pursue their careers elsewhere.

As a whole, the Trust provides a real made-in-the-north solution for northern BC’s rural health care cri- sis.

Rural communities throughout

: PHOTO BY BECKY BOOTH Wide open spaces in the new Medical Building will provide ample room for UNBC medical students to study their craft. With the new funding available for students, space may be more of an issue than people think.

the north find it extremely difficult to retain qualified physicians with- in their communities given the longer hours and lower wages rural physicians must endure com- pared to their urban counterparts. By providing opportunities for students. from rural communities throughout BC’s north, it is expect- ed that these future physicians will not only pursue rural practice in the north, but stay in the north for many years to come.

UNBC Students Vote For Independent Newspaper

Two-thirds of voters approve separation in referendum after brief: shutdown

By JONATHAN WOODWARD CUP BrivisH COLUMBIA BUREAU CHIEE

VANCOUVER (CUP) — After a student newspaper was shut, down and had its funding frozen "by its student union publishers over an article that said men should become “novelties for the super rich,” students at the University of Northern British Columbia have voted to make that newspaper an independently funded publication.

More than two-thirds of under- graduate student voters at the Prince George campus decided ina

referendum to separate Over the Edge from the Northern Undergraduate Student Society and fund the paper directly at $5 pet student per term.

“We know now that the student body supports Over the Edge,” said editor-in-chief Carolynne Burkholder. “The concept of free- dom of the press and that govern- ments should never control the press are the main issues behind this referendum.”

‘In September, Over the Edge published a satirical article called Men in the Modern World, which

NOTICE OF ELECTION : UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT ON THE UNBC BOARD OF GOVERNORS An election will be held to elect one undergraduate student to the UNBC Board of

Governors. There are two candidates:

Fabian Sparvier and Jennifer Young Both candidates have submitted statements regarding their qualifications and interest in serving on the Board of Governors, copies of which will be posted at the office of the Northern Undergraduate Student Society (NUGSS) at the election table on the dates of the election, or which may be obtained by contacting Charlene Myers, Executive Assistant - Senate Secretariat (contact information below). In order to be eligible to vote in the election,

one must meet the following criteria:

(i) Be a student who is a member of the NUGSS, and (ii) Be an undergraduate student registered in at least one course in the semester in which nominations are due and elections-are conducted, or

(iii) Be registered in at least one course in each of the two previous semesters in which nominations are due and elections are conducted, or

{iv)Be registered in a co-op work term in the semester in which nominations are due and elections are conducted.

The election will be held as follows:

DATES: November 30 and December 1, 2004

TIME: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. both dates LOCATION: Agora For further information, please contact:

Charlene Myers, Executive Assistant - Senate Secretariat, Room #2052 Administration Building, Prince George campus Phone: (250) 960-5795, E-mail: myersc@unbe.ca

blamed men for the development of destructive technology, saying only men would need “dangerous phal- lic symbols like guns, rockets and submarines.”

When genetic technology-allows, “men should be forced into non- existence for the safety of the entire Earth. Maybe one or two could be kept alive as novelties for the super rich,” the article said.

University harassment officer Cindy Hardy said the article could be offensive to men. The student union pulled papers from the cam- pus and froze Over the Edge’s bank account.

That’s when the student newspa- per began its campaign for inde- pendence, and lobbied the student union to hold a referendum Nov. 8 and 9.

With 338 votes for and 161 against, the referendum achieved the required two-thirds majority threshold by only eight votes. Sixteen per cent of students voted.

Student union director of exter- nal affairs Ingrid Hope said she hoped the paper would interpret the vote as a mandate to improve coverage of campus events.

“I hope they’re not going to bash everyone because they can,” she said. “They need to please the stu- dents; they’re the boss now.”

The student union had lost a newspaper, she said, but there was no chance it would start a compet- ing publication.

“The student newspaper will still be a newspaper for students on campus,” she said.

Behind the referendum results is a serious financial gain for the paper. Their fees have increased from $2 per student to $5 per stu- dent, meaning their per-term rev- enue more than doubles to $17,500.

The paper will hire a bookkeeper, but the current editors will remain unpaid, said managing editor Stephanie Wilson.

It will also abide by the universi- ty’s harassment policy, but editors will have the ultimate say in what goes in the paper, she said.

“It was blown out of proportion and I’m sorry it came to this, but I’m glad it ended in our autono- my,” Wilson said.

Experts watching the battle for freedom of the press play out in the microcosm of a university campus watched with bemusement, said Claude Adams, a lecturer with the University of B.C. school of journal- ism.

“There’s a real humour deficit on the campus of UNBC,” he said. “I wonder if they’ve got more serious issues to deal with than to pick on Swiftian satire. :

“A lot of what we see in student newspapers is pretty stiff and stodgy, so it’s nice to see somebody using a bit of imagination to com- ment on the world around them,” Adamis said.

New Canada Research Chair

A climate change expert from a world-renowned’ applied . Mathematics research institute will be taking up a new post at UNBC in January as our third federally funded Canada Research Chair. Yumin Tang is leaving New York University’s courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences to become UNBC’s Canada Research Chair in Climate. Prediction and Predictability. His research uses sophisticated numeri- cal models and mathemati- cal tools to predict climate - a significant new approach among researchers investi- gating natural phenomena such as El Nino. Dr. Tang joins ‘Greg Halseth and Lito Arocéna as Canada Research Chairs at: UNBC.

I lth Annual Santa Claus Debate

Come out and see the dis- tinct UNBC take on the Santa Claus debate on Wednesday December Ist at 7:00 p.m. Featuring Dr. Howard Brunt, VP Academic, Dr. Gary Wilson, and Over the Edge’s own News Editor Kathleen De 3 Vere, this event is sure to be’ | good clean Christmas fin — for fall

There will be cookies, eggnog, caroling, and. all sorts of good things at the debate as well presentations from the “Good Guys” (Pro Santa) and the “Bad Guys” - (Not-So-Pro Santa).

UNBC Participated in Northern Research Forum

The third open meeting of the International Northern Research Forum was held in Yellowknife recently. The central theme was “The Resilient North - Human Responses to Global Change”. Jim McDonald of the Anthropology depart- ment and Steve Bigras from the Canadian Polar Commission organized a project day to empathize community based research in the north. Participants included scholars, politi- cians, and community lead- ers from all the northern countries.