THE MCGILL TRIfiUHf
Volum e 5, N um ber 18
Published by the Students' Society of M cG ill University
Tuesday, February 11, 1986
D a ily Petition Presented
Calls For Staff Dismissals by Pablo Policzer
Peek-a-boo!
Photo - Ezra Greenberg
BrierleyVindicated by Adeeb Khalid The Post Graduate Students' Society (PGSS) Council defeated a motion last Wednesday to impeach Bill Brierly, Graduate Rep to Students' Council from his office. The PGSS executive had tabl ed the motion after censuring Brierly at their meeting a week before and calling on him to resign. The executive was expressing its dissatisfaction with the way Brierly had represented PGSS interests at Council. However, after debate in confidential session, councillors were not satisfied that such a drastic move was called for. The Council also debated a lengthy resolution about the Daily. The resolu tion would have "condemned the man ner in which the McGill Daily has operated this year," called on the Board of Directors to "reanim ate the newspaper by ensuring that regular students operate the newspaper next year" and endorsed the petition now being circulated on campus to impeach the staff of the newspaper. Daily Editor-in-Chief Melinda Wittstock, speaking by leave of council, called the resolution "so strange as to be insulting. To impeach the whole staff of a newspaper that is presently open to all is to discriminate against people who hold different views," she said. Music councillor Peter Tannenbaum, a former member of the Daily Board of Directors, said, "W e are concerned with maintaining the structure of the Daily. The motion is meant to convey a tough message for the Daily and not for its structure. We hope never to be at this impasse again." Wittstock defended the newspaper. "Nobody has total power over the con tents of the newspaper. "To impeach the whole staff is going a bit too far," she said. "The newspaper is a place where people learn important skills, and shutting it down for the rest of the year would deprive many interested students of this possibility." The motion was, however, tabled as the meeting had exceeded its time limit and a motion to extend the meeting by a half hour was defeated. Earlier, after considerable debate, the council also tabled a motion that would have enabled PGSS to run a referendum asking graduate students if they "wish to re-allocate to the Post Graduate Students' Society the membership fee
currently paid by graduate students to the Students' Society of M cG ill Univer sity." "It is time to take an intelligent look and decide once and for all whether we go along with Students' Society or go it alone," Diane Dutton, PGSS President said. She was speaking in the context of the history of uneasy relations between the societies that Graduate senator Ramesh Singal has outlined in a report. The topic is of current interest in the light of negotiations going on about the new StudSoc constitution. "Most of our demands have been met," said Dutton. "But the point was increased representation and we're not getting that. And Students' Society does not recognize us as any different from other faculty associations, but we are different." StudSoc president James Green, who has speaking rights on PGSS Council, spoke in defence of PGSS participation in StudSoc, pointing out that diverting fees to PGSS would mean that graduate students would cease to be members of StudSoc and thus ineligible to make use of StudSoc facilities or be members of StudSoc clubs. "The motion shouldn't address the question of fees. By all means run the referendum but make sure the wording conveys the intent of the referendum," said Green. He also urged that the quorum be set at more than five per cent. "It is not true that PGSS is like any other faculty society. You are the only ones who can nominate your own senators and governors, you are the on ly ones who have received money from us," said Green. "W e are willing to do everything to help." Councillors wanted J o know the full ramifications of seceding from StudSoc and whether PGSS would be able to provide all the services and activities that StudSoc does without wasteful duplication. PGSS President Diane Dutton sug gested preceding the proposed question with one asking graduates whether they wanted to secede from StudSoc. However, the majority opinion was that so little was known of the full im plications of the issue that the issue could not be voted upon. The motion was tabled till the next meeting which means that the referendum cannot now be run till November.
A group of students on campus wants to impeach the entire staff of the McGill Daily. Dean Rosier and Jeffrey Edwards are circulating a petition that would lead to a Student Initiated Referendum on the question. Rosier and Edwards suggest replacing the impeached staff by five persons ap pointed by Students' Council, who would relinquish their position as soon as ten new staff members are recruited. Rosier, the initiator of the petition,, said that "as a paying member of the Daily Publications Society (DPS), I feel entitled to have some of my views as well as those of other students represented in the paper." Both said that the Daily would not accept any other views except their own and that the staff "discourages those who don't meet their slant." Edwards, who worked for the Daily for three years, and who was French Edition Editor last semester, said that "things at the English Daily are never reformed from within." He noted that he had no reservations about the French Daily, and regretted that they would have to be dismissed as well. He recommended rehiring all of them to the new Daily staff. Edwards said that he had not overtly voiced any discontent to the members of the English Daily, but that he had unsuccessfully tried a form of constitutional reform three years ago. The petition is based on article 10.5 of the DPS Constitution, which states in part that, "q u e stion s addressing themselves to the participation rights of staff as a whole shall be constitutional." The initiators interpret this as meaning that if the students have the power to dismiss members, they also have the right to determine how they will be ap pointed. The Daily Editor-in-Chief Melinda Wittstock was adamant in stating that "the petition is unconstitutional. The Students' Society cannot appoint new staff. O nly the Daily's Board of Direc tors can do that. Because we're an autonomous corporation, the Students' Society cannot vote on a motion recom mending the impeachment of staff members." She was surprised to hear
that Edwards was part of the petition. "H e never said anything when he work ed here. He voiced no complaints, ex cept some comments about his dislike for the English Daily, but he never brought these up at staff meetings." Meanwhile Luc Joli-Coeur, StudSoc VP External Affairs intends to bring up a resolution recommending that, if the referendum passes, "Students' Council will exercise the authority granted to them and appoint an interim staff." It is precisely this authority that Wittstock says Council does not have.
StudSoc President James Green said that he would be "loath to support any motion that criticises students. In my mind it is the constitution and not the staff that is the problem. I don't want to criticize any staff members because I think they would write under a new constitution." The petition is currently being review ed by the CRO , who has until Wednes day to decide on its validity. If either Rosier or the Daily appeal his decision, it would be turned over to the Judicial Committee of the DF’S.
Nightline M c G IL L N IG H T L IN E
592-8254 by Nicole Gaouette McGill Nightline will be two years old on February 14th. Their new logo is a way of celebrating the anniversary and announcing what they hope will be a shift in Nightline's image. Nightline organizers hope to reach a broader range o f students by establishing themselves as a friendly ear in the night as well as a number to phone in times of dire stress. For the stu dent on a study break who wants to talk or is in search of odd information, McGill Nightline is there. With a huge selection of reference material, the benefit of the experience of professionals associated with McGill, and a thorough training program, stu dent volunteers can provide callers with everything from an interested and sym pathetic ear to information concerning Montréal's best smoked meat sand wich. (You'll have to phone to find that one out). As a service run by and for students, Nightline is as realistic as it is confiden tial; volunteers do not act as counsellors or converters, but as friends. The volunteers cover a diverse range of ages (18-35) and academic backgrounds, but form a cohesive unit in spite of this. All
work under pseudonyms that they use regularly so that callers can leave messages for a volunteer they would like to contact once more. According to one Nightline worker, feedback from callers, either to say thank you or explain the outcome of the problem, is rare, but is one of the rewards of the job. Though they do receive occasional pranks or calls that degenerate into manipulative abuse, these are rare. The training the volunteers have received help them deal with such calls. Funding of Nightline is a joint effort between the office of the Dean of Students, which provides $1500 and StudSoc, which supplies the other $500. This money just meets the cost of the monthly phone bills, the automatic switching equipment between the two phones and other administrative costs. At the moment Nightline is trying to get some form of permanent aid from both the Dean and StudSoc to ensure its ability to operate next year, hopefully with more phones and longer hours. In the meantime, the phones are open every night from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. on weekends, and 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. during the week at 392-8234.
New Building Proposed
A Bigger And Better Bookstore by Sophie Wilson If the Board of Governors is agreeable, McGill could have a brand new, bigger and better bookstore operating on campus by the summer of 1987. Plans have been approved by various budgetary and planning committees for the construction of a two storey building on the site of the present McTavish Street parking lot behind the Bronfman building. Construction of the new bookstore would be financed, according to the proposal, by a $3.4 million loan from the university. The bookstore would then pay back the university over a 16 year period, using projected profits of $472,100 a year. Profits from the bookstore currently go to StudSoc. Until the present academic year, these profits — ranging from $35,000 to $70,000 each year — were channelled directly into repay ment of StudSoc's debt to the Universi tyIn the "debt-free" referendum of last semester, however, students voted in favour of a $4 per semeser fee solely for the purpose of abolishing StudSoc's debt to M cGill, freeing any revenue formerly tied up in the repayment of StudSoc's debt for financing the Stud
Soc budget. The bookstore profits fall into this category. Marie Davis, VP Finance of StudSoc and member of the Bookstore Commit tee, told the Tribune that she had not yet brought the bookstore profits ques tion before Council. Originally, Davis had thought of creating a "special pro ject" fund with bookstore profits. "Special projects," Davis told the Tribune, "might have included a new reading room on the fourth floor of the Union Building, or a loan and bursary program."
Instead, Davis hopes Council will agree to return bookstore profits into the hands of the bookstore, for the next 16 years, so that they may fund the con struction of a new building. 'T h e city overall needs a good bookstore," said Davis. "Everyone knows there is a need for this." George Franks, manager of the bookstore, hopes to be able to turn it in to M o n tre a l's m ajo r a ca d e m ic bookstore. Presently Franks has on stock some 400 reference books, in adc o n tin u e d on page 3
r ÇS C D
a:
I
A n g r y le tte rs t o t h e T r i b ..................................p g 4 M c G il l 's f ir s t w o m a n D e a n ......................... p g 5 T h e B ig T r ib ' s W in t e r C a r n iv a l S p r e a d . p g 6 & 7 L a d y j a n e r e v ie w e d ......................................... p g 8 W a s t e P a p e r r e c y c lin g b e g in s .................. p g 1 0 R e d h o c s m a k e p la y o f f s ............................... p g 11