MORELEITERSTo THE EDITOR

A11en1ion:Cascade Editor

This letter is heing written after a lengthy discussion with a number students from UCFV, it has come 10 my attention recently that Animals nightclub has become a safe haven for local bikers and their associates. I like many other students enjoy a good night out. however I'm sick of hearing nbout the senselessfights and ruthless beatings that arc inl1ictcd upon innocent people who chose to go to Animals. This has caused great concern for the students of UCFV that I have spoken to. There have been numerous beatings (the majority of them quite savage and personally dnmag• ing) inllictitd upon students of UCFV and also upon the young people of Abbotstord. l have been warned a few times that this isn't something that should be made public and to just leave it alone, well quite frankly Twould rather be able to, (as student in most other cities do) go to a local nightclub with out fear of being beaten up or intimidated.

The incident that sparked my concern in this most distressing issue occurred on Saturday, November 17,200I. On the night in question T had gone to Animals with the intention of h,wing a drink with a friend of rnine. Instead J ended up witnessing some "testosterone tilled roid monkey" dish out a merciles$ beating to a rather innocent looking young man, who didn't appear to be rnuch older thut nineteen. While this ''barbarian" was beating the first individual, the DJ used his microphone to call for help. Upon hearing this. the "roio monkey" proceeded to attempt to pull the DJ out of his booth while punching aggressively at the controls inside the booth. After this was he was escorted (rather cordially l might add) to the front door, while the young man who hud been beaten was advised to leave. When the doormen had the guy who had done the bc:uing at the front door he was given a warning and allowed to come back inside. I suspect that this may have been due to the two Ahbotsford city policemen standing outside. Within n\inutes he was back inside and once again stalking around looking for another victim (at this point my ass was glued to the wall). This time he was circling the dance l1oor and with in seconds had once again pounced on a seemingly innocent person, after heating him as severely as the first guy, he was rn;ked to leave, not by the doorman but by unother patron of the bar seemed 10 know him (maybe their common interest in 111otorcycles).lt quickly became evident to all present that it wtts the bikers who were running the place and that the doorrnen had li11lc or no say about what went on in the bar. There was a cutmant feeling of ~inresr as it became apparent 1ha1there was basically no real security and that the employees that we could see weren ·1 the ones running the bar at all.

t approximately 2am while we were trying to get to the coat check there wus ye1 another fight involving a number of the doormen and sorne of the patrons. The doormen did liulc to stop the light, but rather tried 10just get it out side. The fight involved a number of individuals all going after one guy. The doormen finally got everyone outside. but they did differentiate between whom was whom they just threw them all out in the purking lot and let them keep fighting out onto the street. By the

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Editor:

It is with i nteresl diut I have read the numerous 11lightsmade against the UCFV Student Union Society (published in your paper).

I do not always support the SUS. In fact, J often take seri<rns e,-ception to what they do. !Jui I do realize that, for beuer or worse, they are intent upon working towards the be.~tinter• ests of the students at UCFY.

1 challenge all those who chastise the SUS to "Put Up or Shut Up''. 1t is really easy to hang out in the cheap seats and hurl insults and accusations. J have yet to see any of those critics running for SUS office. Could it be that, at the end of the day, they are nothing more than cowards?

Mikt Ander~on UCC Student Rep

Dear Mike Anderson,

Although. I stand by everything rhar the Cascade has printed thusJar. regarding the UCFV SUS, I do agree with you thal SUS does do a lot of hard work rhar is vital and often far too unappreciatedby UCFV studems. However;there are concerns and dangers wirh whole• hearI11dlye111bmci11gyour "put up or shut up" ma.i:im. Fim of all, it is the <Luryof the media lo report whm is going on (m objectively as possible). regardless of personal biases or whether the rcportinRof facts favors or criticizes a group such as SUS. Secondly. I suppose the perceived necessity of your leIler serves to answer <:011cerns regarding editorial control of the Cascade. As you have noticed, the .fact that the Cascade is, in/act. owned by the Student U11in11has no/ Iai111('(f reporti11g011 SUS matters. Lastly, I wouldjust like to poinl oul that not everyone crm be a SUS rep or 111e111bu of the SUS executive. However it is still tlte respo11sibiliIyof EVERYstude111 ro hal'l' i11p111i1110/he decisions of the UCFV S US. a11d,as .lose Uzca1eg11i,the SUS Puh/ir l11fom1atio11Officer re111i11ded me, tlu• SUS execu/ive welcomes ~-uc:lti11voh•e111erit. The Cascade is ac11telyinvolved in studew 11olitics,t() promote, praise a11d critique the•operation of SUS. Ami, as a side note, we often find that our own job,f receil'e disproportio11ate(ygrem a//lOLllltS of criticism ill refarioll to the 1111111ber of peop/(>who are actually willl11gtu xet involved themselves.

Sinc('rely.

Beth Kelleher

CASCADE Staff

On the 23rd of November I attended a meeting initiated by the $CMS students' association.

Various members of the SUS council attended, along with students concerned aboul the SUS decision to pay their executive members 1500.00/month, and their poorly thought out referendum, set for 28-29 N(>vcmbcr. Student objections to the monthly "salary" proposed wer·e based mainly in the process by which council implemented it without properly consulting stu• dents at large, and secondarily in the inappropriate amount selected.

Students discus. cd the fact that by their own Constitution and Bylaws, the SUS Council should have put the question of increased remuneration of Directors of the Society (read: SUS Council Reps & Exec) to an Annual General Meeting with minimum two weeks notice of motion, or to a general Referendum, with a set amount and a yes or no question.

The meeting seemed to have some effect on one or twQ members of the SUS executive. President Mark DeLadurante volunteered to give his entire 'paychcque' back to the SUS (minus taxes) as a gesture of good faith towards students. Surprisingly, students urged him not to take this action - the first attempt at ethical action by the new President in the face of nil the unethical deci• sion-making that's been going on in Council. Mark appeared to genuinely have students concerns at heart, and seemed to want to do what stu• dents feel is right, but didn't conunit 10 following through with his apparently spontaneous gesture.

Jen, the VP External, proposed a solution to the problem that is the only proper, ethical at:tion the SUS council can possibly take: rescind the motion passed by Council to pay Executive the monthly salary in the first pluce. Doing so would make the 'yes or yes' Referendum question moot.

Last l heard, the SUS Council had decided to go on 'student recommendations' that something closer to 800.00/month would be a more acceptable 'salary' for Executives. Making that decision based on a room of 20 concerned students is jui,t as unacceptable and outside the Constitution and Bylaws as the order-in-Council approving the 1500.00/month! The SUS is compounding their unethic.al behaviour with further inappropriate decision-making procedures.

I urge all members of the SUS Council nol to accept any monies over the amount currently set in the Constitulion and Bylaws of our Society, and to return anything they have accepted thus far over and above that amount (150.00/morllh for Exec. 75.00 for Reps) before students decide to take it back themselves.

To all sludcnts who think it's acceptable for the SUS Executive to give themselves salaries that amount to $9,000.00/month without even asking you what you want to do with YOUR student fees, it's time to flip to the sex column.

To all students who are even mildly concerned, please consider taking matters into your own hands, by the rules set out in our SUS Constitution and Bylaws. If I 0% Uust under 700) of students sign a petition requesting a Special General Meeting (SGM), and that petition states the purpose of the meeting (i.e. a motion phrased sort of like this: "Be it resolved that SUS Council members receive only the remuneration set out currently in the Constitution and Bylaws, and be it further resolved that monies already received by Council members in excess of that amount be returned to the Society immediately"), then the SUS has to hold a SGM where students will get 10 vote on the motion. and force them back to tbeir original rates of "pay."

Lei the SUS Council know what you think of their self-interested, unethical behaviour. Send a letter to the Cascade or the Toque. Get involved. Get your money back!

Beverly Bouman

To the Cascade, l agree with Kelleher about monogamy. B!!ing faithful to one's sexual partner is a very importam thing, und I support monogamy and afe sex wholeheartedly. But I al o think that sex should be fun, and I think pornography can be fun for lots of people. Everyone is different in what they like about sex and what they find offensive. Kelleher is entitled to her own opinions, but 1 believe that seating those opinions as fact is not a positive thing. Kelleher believes that pornography is ''rude and vulgar" and that it is "unadulterated moral insolence". J believe it can be fun, interesting and campy. I guess it's a personal choice.

I would have to say that I did not agree with l3eth Kcllcher's al'ticle, "What Is Pornography". While over half the article has little to du with pornography and much to do with criticizing the Toque, I would still have to say that I agree with the Toque in not printing all of Beth's article. I felt that her article was redundant, and I liked reading the Toque's response two weeks ago to the part of her aticle that wus published (As 15 year old boys" do not generally attend UCPV). And even if a 15 year old boy were to pick up a copy of the Toque and view its tame, n0t•worth•mentioning "soft-core pornogruphy'', I doubt it would "pervert his natural sexuality". Besides. we ull know 15 ~ear old boys can get off lookfog at the !in• gerie section of the Sears Catalogue.

Yes, I agree that there is a fine line between what constitutes pornography, art, and nudity. It would be interesting to read an article abl)Ut that without the preachy quality of Kelleher's writing. I find myself interested in Kelleher's religious and sexu• al background. Before I ever viewed pornography, I believed it to be degrading to women and morally corrupting.

I also had the idea that pornography was omething exclusively made for males. Kelleher thinks that "pluying with people's lust" (which, to her, is "the goal of pornography") is morally wrong. I think it's pretty fun. When J actually hegan to view pornography myself, I was amazed that I did not find it degrading to women, and instead that T was turned on by it. l am a girl. l likc pornography. 1 think that is O.K.