The Muse, vol. 47, no. 14 (31 January 1997)

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January 31, 1997
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Volume 47, Number 14
Government won't budge on 1-900 line
Deputy minister says Internet can help solve the problem of high student phone bills
By SEAN RYAN
Despite numerous student
complaints about expensive
phone bills, the department of
education won't replace a 1-900
student aid information line with
a toll free number. Instead, the
government says, it will use the
Internet to help deal with the
problem.
The provincial student aid division operates a 1-900 number
which charges callers 50 cents
for the first minute and 40 cents
each additional minute. The 1-
900 number was the target of
numerous complaints last semester because of the high long distance bills students, particularly
those in rural Newfoundland, are
charged to check the status of
their student loans.
"What [the Internet] would do
is remove dependency on the 1-
900 number," said Frank Marsh,
assistant deputy education minister.
Math Department
proposes mandatory
entry exam for 1080
By MICHAEL CONNORS
Officials with the Math Department are proposing that all first-
year students registering for Math
1080 be required to write a placement exam.
Presented to the Senate Undergraduate Committee over a week
ago, the test would replace the Math
Skills Inventory (MSI) which is
currently taken by all students who
scored below 70 per cent in high
school Academic Math.
Bruce Watson, head ofthe Math
Department, says the Math Placement Exam is necessary because of
the elimination of public exams last
year. He also said the 70-per-cent
cut-off point in Academic Math
isn't necessarily an indication of
how well a student will do in Math
1080.
"The province did away with
public exams so high school marks
are less reliable," Watson said.
But the Senate committee didn't
accept the proposal. Steve Ennis,
vice-president academic with the
CSU and committee member, thinks
the test isn't fair because it applies
only to Math 1080.
"If you fail [the test] you can'tdo
1080 but you can do [Math] 1000,"
Ennis said. "Say I attained a mark of
80 in [Advanced Math in] high
school but I don't study over the
summer. It can knock students off."
Students graduating from high
school in the Advanced Math program have the option of doing either Math 1080 or the more advanced Math 1000. The placement
test will only be administered to
students registering for Math 1080,
however, and Ennis feels this punishes students who did the harder
program in high school, but choose
not to in university.
Watson argues, however, that
Advanced Math students should
have no problem with the placement exam.
"About 50 per cent of the material is junior high school level. I
fully expect a student who received
alegitimatemarkinAdvancedMath
to pass the placement test," Watson
said.
"A lot of advanced students go
into 1080, and we currently excuse
them from writing the MSI. For
consistency we thought it would be
• Please see "Senate" on page 5
But while Marsh says the 'Net
may be the solution to an inefficient system that often leaves
students on hold for as much as
15 minutes, all the while being
billed for their time, student leaders aren't quite as optimistic.
"I disagree due to the simple
fact: 'How many students have
access to the 'Net around Newfoundland?'" CSU Vice-President Zaki Saleemi said. "You
have to realize not everybody
has instant 'Net access."
Saleemi said New Brunswick
tried to use the Internet to solve
the same problem, but it never
caught on.
"Out ofthe 8,000 people [New
Brunswick] has on their student
aid program, 40 used the 'Net
access last year," he said.
But Marsh said the difference
is that the Newfoundland government has learned from New
Brunswick's mistakes.
• Please see "Dial" on page 4
Members of Barnes House get psyched up for Winter Carnival by doing their best engineering
ill piessrin. See Stoly on page 3. Photo by Mike Bannister
New society wants hemp legalized
By CRAIG BABSTOCK
Memorial University now lays
claim to its very own hemp society. And while the group's quest
to legalize marijuana may make
hemp growers and pot smokers
happy, it is getting a mixed reaction from some members of the
MUN community.
The goal of the MUN HEMP
Society (the acronym stands for
Help End Marijuana Prohibition)
is to push for the 100 per cent
legalization of hemp. The group
says hemp has several industrial
uses, including the manufacture
of clothes, rope and paper, as
well as the recreational produc-
HEMP, HEMP, HOORAY! Kate Johnson ofthe MUN
HEMP society says legalizing the plant marijuana is made
from will benefit the economy, the environment and put big
smiles on everybody's faces. Others are skeptical.
tion of marijuana.
Kate Johnson, the society's
founder, says legalizing hemp
can also benefit the environment.
She says paper could be made
from hemp instead of wood, and
that a crop of hemp can be replenished in less than a year, as
opposed to 100 years for a tree.
And, as an added bonus,
Johnson says legalizing hemp
would result in a boom for the
local economy.
"Newfoundland is perfect for
growing hemp, so why aren't we
doing it? Then we would have
an economy again. All those poor
fisherpeople could go out and
farm hemp, and they'd have
money," she said.
"[Our group's goal] is to make
more people aware of the
government's hypocrisy and
confusion concerning the hemp
and marijuana laws. This could
• See "Legalization " on page 5
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