students
face tuition
fee crunch

Day of protest set for Feb. 7

CAPILANO COLLEGE students will
voice their opposition to looming fed-
eral funding cuts to post-secondary
education with a day of protest.

By Layne Christensen
Community Reporter
The event is planned for Wednesday, Feb.

Campus activities are expected to include
the distribution of postcards and pamphlets,
and an information session in the cafeteria.

The National-Day of Protest, as student
activists are calling it, is being organized in
cooperation with the Canadian Federation of
. Students (CFS). Campuses across the coun-

try will hold their own events that day,
according to Capilano Student Union
resource coordinator Sarah Dixon.

The student union initiative has the sup-
‘port of Capilano College president Greg Lee
who objects to the federal. government’s
~ plans to cut $188 million from federal fund-

. ing of post-secondary education in B.C. over

“We're all concerned,
We've been told that
these cuts will be passed
on (to the schools). We
don’t know how much,”
said Lee. “Inevitably,
there wil} be an increase
in tuition fees and possi-
bly a reduction in ser-
vice.”

Lee said that tuition
increases in excess of
20% next year are not
unlikely if the reductions
are passed on.

According to Lee,
tuition fees have already
increased 42% since
1991-92. In 1995-96 fees were $42.50 per
credit hour, up from $30 per credit hour in
1991-92.

Tuition hikes are especially worrisome to
students like Leanne Sjodin, who rely on stu-
dent loans.

Sjodin, 29, is a single mother of two with
a certificate in early childhood education.

She's looking at eight years of part-time

studies to achieve her goal of a Masters
degree so that she can teach English. Sjodin
estimates her debt upon graduation at
$30,000 to $40,000. If tuition hikes are
made, she expects that figure to double.
Because she sees education as the only
way out of a future of “very low-paying
jobs.” she’s determined to stay in school.
“I'm not going to quit because-I don’t see

NEWS photo Mike Waketiokd

LEANNE SJODIN, a part-time student at Capilano College and single mother of two, fears that
proposed cuts to ‘federal funding of post-secondary institutions will force a rise in tuition fees.

my other options,” she said. But other low:

income students may find the fee hikes a
deterrent, she added.

Activities are scheduled between 10:30
a.m, and 12:30 p.m..on Feb. 7, at Capilano
College. Classes will take place as sched-
uled. The CFS has pianned a rally and march -
from Library Square to the Vancouver Art

; “the. next two years.

Contracts too
rich, says WV |

* vice- -chairman_

“THE | ‘NORTH. | . Vancouver
* Teachers’ ‘Association and a

_o. West Vancouver School Board |
vice-chairman expressed shock °

Friday at Education Minister
‘Art Charbonneau’s firing of
. seven North Vancouver School
District 44 trustees.

2 By Jan Noble. |
2 News Reporter

‘The dismissal came Thursday i in
' Tesponse to. the school board’s
" Fefusal to cut a government-ordered
$500,000 from this year's budget
‘and its announced intention to boost

“+ the: district’s accumulated deficit to

nearly $5 million.
“West Vancouver District 45
~ Schoo! Board vice-chairman Clive

'. Bird said his board members were

Shocked ‘but not surprised by

stu

, Charbonneau's move, Bird said his
: board believes North Vancouver

trustees could have made further
cuts, but chose not to.

For example, West Vancouver
chopped department coordinator

‘positions in its three secondary

schools —- a move that saved the
board $128,000. North Vancouver
hasn’t made similar cuts, he said.

Bird agreed with the North
Vancouver board’s contention that it
is underfunded, but said all urban
boards. are, including West
Vancouver.

So why isn’t West Vancouver —
which posted a $1.2 million surplus
last year — sinking in the same fis-
cal quagmire as North Vancouver?
Bird said North Vancouver's collec-
tive agreements and administrative
contracts are strangling the school
district. Wages and benefit packages
currently eat up 91% of North
Vancouver's $97.7 million in oper-
ating expenses. In West Vancouver,
wages and benefits account for 79%
of a $38.7 million budget.

But another important contribu-
tor to West Vancouver coffers is the
foreign student program. It makes

about $2 million a year, said Bird.

’ “If it weren't for our foreign student

program, we would have to make
some serious cuts ourselves to bal-
ance the budget,” he said.

Chuck Dixon, the North
Vancouver Teachers’ Association
president, also expressed shock at
the board's firing. But he added the
District 44 board has. made cuts —
to resource centres for special-needs
students, library budgets, school

maintenance, band and string pro-

grams, and school supplies.

“This board should not be pun- .

ished for saying that they cannot
make any further cuts and that equi-
table funding should be provided to
North Vancouver schools,” he said.

Dixon also took Charbonneau to
task for not assisting in the board's
budget difficulties and firing the
board without having confirmed or
denied the board’s claim it is under-
funded.

Said Dixon: “The minister and
(North Vancouver-Lonsdale NDP
MLA David Schreck) should have
made good on their offer of assis-
tance rather than firing the board
and creating even greater upheaval

in our district.”

Appearing to anticipate such
criticism, Education Minister: Art
Charbonneau stated Thursday that
his ministry had identified expendi-
ture areas that could be reduced.

“To date (trustees) have rejected

all recommendations for expendi-~

ture reduction,” said Charbonneau.
Bob Smith, who has -been
appointed official trustee for the
school district, said he wil} be the
“governing board” for the district
and be responsible for board policy.
The length of his appointment
has not been determined, he said.
Meanwhile, Schreck said trustee
elections’ are scheduled. for
November 1996. He added’ t:.ed
trustees will not . be | paid.
Renumeration for the seven tnustees
totals $85,000 per year of which the
board chairman receives $13,699
per year and trustees $11,799..
North Vancouver-Seymour
Liberal MLA Daniel Jarvis expects
the NDP to write off the $5 million.
The only alternative is to rewrite
contracts, he said. “Can you visual-

ize (leading NDP leadership candi-’

date) Glen Clark recommending to

Gallery beginning at 1:30 p.m.

WVSB VICE-CHAIRMAN Clive:
Bird ... North Vancouver's col
lective agreements. and:

‘administrative contrasts are

strangling the school district.

the B.C. Teachers Federation : in.

North Vancouver to reduce their,
contract?” he asked.

Fellow Liberal MLA Jeremy’
Dalton said the board's deficit can- .

not be forgiven, But he added the <.

NDP has done nothing to change.a .
funding formula that shortchanges ~.
North Vancouver.

fote!

A B. C. Supreme Court judge acquitted a
‘North Vancouver hotel owner of four

' ‘counts of sexual assault Friday.

- By Brent Mudry and
Anna Marie D'Angelo

_ The verdict by Mr. Justice Howard
* ‘Callaghan was quick.

’ The week-long B.C. Supreme Court trial
hinged largely on the issue of consent.
_ Ken Hutchinson, 48, had faced charges
involving three of his former employees in the
1980s.

Said Hutchinson following the decision,
“I’m just elated, We didn’t know whether jus-
tice would prevail. When peuple decide to take
a run at you, you’re vulnerable. I have no guilt
and I did nothing wrong.”

His defence lawyer ended the trial by claim-
ing the Crown failed to prove its case.

A long-time office employee of the Avalon
countered the complainants’ evidence earlier on

ier acqu

Mona Simpson, the assistant manager of the
hotel, claimed that one of the women had a
long-standing crush on Hutchinson.

Simpson described one incident in which an
embarrassed Hutchinson asked her to take the
woman home from a B.C. Hotel Association
convention.

“She got makeup all over his collar because
she was hanging off him,” recalled Simpson,

The witness told the court that twe of the
alleged victims often stayed after work in the
hotel lounge, waiting for Hutchinson.

One woman claimed under oath that
Hutchinson lured her to deliver documents to
his house, and raped he7.

But Hutchinson’s lawyer, J.J. McIntyre
pointed out that the woman continued to work
at the Avalon for several years, and gave
Hutchinson an expensive present in a staff
Christmas gift exchange a few months after the
alleged incident.

Another complainant admitted that she had
four or five drinks after her shift in the hotel bar
every second night.

“Her recollections of events are impaire

itted

McIntyre claimed.

The defence lawyer also argued that the
alleged incidents were so different in detail that
no pattern of “similar fact evidence” emerged
during the trial.

Meanwhile Hutchinson testified Thursday
that he hired a private investigator to conduct
background checks of the women who alleged
the assaults.

Crown lawyer Allan Flanz suggested that
private investigator George Harding was finally
fired by the Avalon Hotel owner after ‘‘slander-
ous” material was presented to the North
Vancouver RCMP indicating that one of the
women was a known prostitute.

“Mr. Harding was not fired by me ... We no
longer needed to use his investigative services,"
said Hutchinson.

Hutchinson said the private investigator
worked for him for a year until January 1995.

The private investigator was hired shortly
after one of the women went to the North
Vancouver RCMP with her criminal complaints
about Hutchinson on Jan. 4, 1994, said Flanz.

In his testimony, Hutchinson denied all

f ¢ Chak

charges against him. He said that he had con-
sensual sex with one employee at his West
Vancouver home after she brought some
papers.

His testimony indicated one complainant
was disgruntled with the hotel job.

He recalled an incident with a ‘complainant
who seemed to be annoyed with him after he
told her he didn’t have $4,000 to give her to pay

a lawyer for a drug case. He said one of the :

complainants had wanted him to take her out: y

The women’s identities: are - “Protected by,
court order.

On cross-examination, Hutchinson said that
he was born in Calgary and educated there,'i in
Edmonton and in Montreal.

Szid Flanz, ‘So there is no part of the word.
‘no’ you don’ Cunderstand?” .
“That's correct,” said Hutchinson. fo

One woman testified that Hutchinson’ lured
her into the Avalon’s accounting office, and
molested her. Hutchinson testified that he
recalled the incident was'a “total non-event."

“T may have brushed her arm. I remember
her being inside my space...

’

as