The Prince €Zearge
Citizen
MONDAY, JUNE 17,1991
51 CENTS
(Plus GST)
Low tonight: 7 High tomorrow: 20
Tension running high_______________5
A planetary rendezvous	7
Unity at crossroads________________9
Nixon stole the show______________1j
Phone: 562-2441 Classified: 562-6666 Circulation: 562-3301
BALANCE BETWEEN TEACHING, RESEARCH
Northern university’s aims outlined
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen StafT
The University of Northern B.C. will put as much emphasis on leaching as on research and will develop promotion and tenure policies to reflect this policy, UNBC president Geoffrey Weller said Saturday.
The aim is to avoid the excessive concern with research that causes the neglect of undergraduate teaching in many traditional North American universities, he said.
Weller was guest luncheon speaker during the third and final day of the Advanced Education Council of B.C.’s provincial conference in Prince George. About 200 people attended the event.
“UNBC should ensure from the outset there’s an equal balance between instruction and research,”
he said. “Many universities today could be accused of losing that balance and placing too much emphasis on research.
“UNBC’s role will be to both transmit knowledge and advance it. We will put in policies to ensure this balance.
“These will range from not having graduate students lecture to a promotion and tenure structure that balances the two endeavors.”
However, it is essential to establish graduate programs at the same time as undergraduate programs in many key faculties to attract the best quality of instructors and benefit the community to the greatest extent possible, he said.
Administrators of other northern universities, particularly those in Scandinavia, agree for several reasons that northern frontier universities have to offer both under-
graduate and graduate degrees, Weller said.
“Firstly, graduate degrees are required and desired by northern residents.
“Secondly, regionally relevant research that is needed cannot easily be undertaken without graduate programs.
“Third, it is easier to attract high-quality faculty if most departments have graduate programs.”
So far there is no evidence to support concern that a new northern frontier university will have trouble attracting a good-quality faculty, Weller noted.
UNBC recently advertised openings for some administrative positions. “We were absolutely swamped with applications. We had well over 100 applications for some positions.”
UNBC will take measures to avoid the unreasonable departmental rivalries evident at many other universities, he said.
Instead of a physics building or a biology building, the university may arrange to construct a laboratory building, a lecture building, office buildings and a social centre to try to break down artificial barriers.
“Traditional universities have become far too departmentalized — fragmented into departments as if to try to compartmentalize knowledge into neat little boxed units.”
The University of Northern B.C. will work co-operatively with community colleges to ensure the maximum benefit for all the residents of the northern half of the province, he said.
“UNBC wants to work closely
with the colleges both academically and through joint use of resources,” he said, adding that it will strive to make sure courses taken in college academic programs fit right into university programs when students transfer in.
The University of Northern B.C., like universities in northern regions elsewhere, will be a way for northern B.C. people to gain access to a university education, he said.
“Many of them can’t afford to go to southern universities. That is undoubtedly why the participation rate in university education in Northern B.C. is so very low.”
UNBC will offer all the traditional core subjects that universities everywhere are expected to teach, he said. All northern universities around the world offer pro-
grams of instruction in these standard subjects.
Northern universities have to help in the economic, social and cultural development of northern regions, he said.
“To have this impact, their fields of instruction should be focused on strengthening and modernizing the existing network of services and production in the area.
“They have to offer advanced degrees that help in existing employment areas and which also help diversify the economy.
“In short, they have to be universities for their northern regions. UNBC indeed intends to offer these subjects that are regionally relevant, and become a university for northern British Columbia.”
Teacher
mediation
fails
FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. (CP) — Mediation has failed to end the longest teachers’ strike in British Columbia history.
Mediator Vince Ready said Sunday that some progress has been made but there was no ageement on issues such as contracting out and class size.
The strike by 330 teachers began May 8, leaving 5,000 North Peace students without classes.
So far, 27 days of instruction have been lost. One group of students fasted for 100 hours in an effort to persuade trustees to agree to teachers’ demands for a mediator.
Apartheid’s
foundation
dismantled
CAPE TOWN (Reuter) — South Africa’s parliament voted today to end race classification, the legal foundation of apartheid since 1950.
An aide said President F. W. de Klerk would sign the repeal of the Population Registration Act into law within days, ending the enforced allocation of every South African to one of four major race groups at birth.
White legislators adopted the repeal bill by 89 votes to 38. Members of the separate colored (mixed race) and Indian chambers gave the measure unanimous support.
Dismantling official segregation is a key to de Klerk’s proclaimed goal of creating a non-racial democracy in which blacks will have the vote and a share in power for the first time in the 339 years since European settlers landed in Cape Town.
A government source predicted de Klerk would urge black leaders, including Nelson Mandela and Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi to help start negotiations on a new, non-racial constitution.
Chrome classics
Citizen photo by Brock Gable
Ray Rutherford, left, and Joe Gaal show off true heavy metal: 1954 Buick Specials at the Cruisin’ Classics Show and Shine car show Sunday at the Prince George Secondary School parking lot. The only difference between the cars — aside from color — is that Ray’s is a two-door while Joe owns a four-door version.
VOLCANO IN PHILIPPINES
Mass evacuation under way
MANILA (Reuter-CP) — A U.S. naval battle group headed by the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln changed course today to evacuate thousands of Americans threatened by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.
Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos crowded into churches, schools and gymnasiums after fleeing from the erupting volcano which killed at least 100 people in a weekend of terror, relief officials said.
Dozens more were feared buried in towns and villages swamped by cascading mud unleashed when Mount Pinatubo erupted in a deadly series of explosions last week, causing buildings to collapse under the weight of accumulated ash and sand.
“I went through the Japanese occupation, but the war was never anything like this,” said 75-year-old Corazon Monteardo, as she arrived at an evacuation camp in San Fernando on the perimeter of a 40-kilometre “danger zone” around the volcano.
Tremors rocked the area throughout the night, but by early today Mount Pinatubo appeared to have quieted down, and scientists said the worst may be over.
About 40 Canadians, mostly missionaries and aid workers, are in the area of the volcano. Rene Cremonese, a spokesman at the Canadian Embassy, said today the mission has been unable to contact them now for almost a week.
But he said: “Philippine authori-
ties have assured us no Canadians have been killed or injured.”
A spokesmn at the U.S. Subic Bay Naval Base, 80 kilometres northwest of Manila, said the battle group would pick up around 5,000 dependants of U.S. soldiers based in the Philippines.
The Abraham Lincoln, escorted by two cruisers, four frigates, a destroyer and a supply ship, was on its way to the Persian Gulf when it was told to help evacuate the U.S. families, threatened by Mount Pi-natubo’s deadly explosions, which started a week ago.
At least 120,000 Filipino evacuees jammed into Manila, and tens of thousands more sheltered in churches, schools, a disused army camp and gymnasiums, said
to reports from officials and relief agencies.
Packed buses, trucks and jeeps jammed routes out of the danger zone around Mount Pinatubo, which bombarded nearby towns with pebbles, red hot lava and ash, and forced the closure of Clark Air Base, the largest U.S. air base in Asia.
The United States began evacuating 20,000 dependants of U.S. soldiers from Subic after scientists said further explosions threatened up to a million people.
Cremonese said the air in the capital is filled with a fine dust from the volcano. “People are going around town with handkerchiefs over their mouths to keep out the dust.”
INDEX
HERMAN
Ann Landers ....	10
Bridge..............18
Business.................8
City, B.C...........2,3
Classified ....	15-19
Comic...............14
Commentary...............5
Crossword...........16
Editorial................4
Entertainment ...	14
Family..............10
Horoscope...........18
International............7
Lotteries................6
Movies..............14
National............6,9
Sports...............11-13
Television...........17
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’Do you think I'm pressing the typewriter keys too hard?"
Tough sleddin’ in B.C.
by Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — After another weekend of cloud, rain, hail — even snow at higher elevations — British Columbians are getting tired of the long wait for summer weather.
“It’s almost like somebody’s plotting this to drive us out of our minds,” taxi driver Ken MacMillan said Sunday, his wipers flapping across the cab’s windshield. “It drives me crazy.”
Vancouver rain was still preferable to the snow highways officials said fell for several hours Sunday morning on the Coquihalla Highway connector west of Peachland in the Okanagan.
And from Merritt to Kamloops the Coquihalla had slushy and slippery sections at higher elevations. Snowplows and sandcrs were called in and the roads were cleared within three hours as the snow turned to rain.
On the bright side, the Environment Canada weather office predicts a gradual drying beginning today with clouds partially clearing by Tuesday and mostly sunny for the rest of the week.
Phil Kamenka,	owner and
manager of a West End beachware shop, said Sunday the weather is to blame for a 30-per-cent drop in his sales.
Last year at this time, he would
have been doing a brisk trade in T-shirts, bathing suits, sandals, sunglasses, beach hats and other fair weather accessories.
But the hottest selling items in his shop during the weekend were sweatshirts.
“We’re doing well with sweatshirts because it’s been cold,” he said.
But a heavy snowfall on Black-comb Mountain at Whistler, 100 kilometres north of Vancouver, was good news for skiers.
“It’s still winter up here, which is great for us,” said resort employee Kevin Krepon. “We’ve got over six feet of snow at the base of the mountain.”
Flat-rate pay hikes approved
Citizen news services
KAMLOOPS — The Hospital Employees Union says it’s reached an breakthrough agreement with B.C. hospitals on pay equity.
The union and the Health Labour Relations Association of British Columbia have agreed that wage increases will be calculated on a fiat-ratc basis across the board, dropping percentage hikes.
That means people in traditionally lower paid jobs — mostly women — will get the same cash increases as those in higher-paid positions, usually men.
“I see it as a significant movement,” says Carmela Al-levato, union secretary and business manager.
The union bargains for more than 24,000 hospital workers and the association represents 120 B.C. health care facilities.
The agreement will help reduce the gap between the pay rates, Allevato says.
“Percentage increases, rather than working toward achieving pay equity, widen the gap between low-paid women and men,” says Allevato.
The union has called for a $3-an-hour across-the-board increase for all workers. Association spokesman Martin Livingston describes the pact as an agreement in principle.
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