Ontario Community Newspapers

Terrace Bay News, 2 Apr 1970, p. 9

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TERRACE BA*' NEWS A PAGE 9 If they want to be doctors, dentists or lawyers, they have to go south, because we are not permitted to establish these badly needed northern schools. We have been permitted to develop degree schools of nursing and forestry. -- As for research, theortory that we are not interested int or encouraging northern research is nonsense. We have grants of approximately $200,000 per annun, a large fraction of which is spent on northern research - the character of Lake Superior, the growing habits of wild rice, the physical characteristics of local paper products, the pollution of northern air and waters, the catalytic properties of nickel products are a few of the projects, sarried out by first- class men with the support and co-operation of a wide range of industries and government departments. The President had high hopes of the Director of Northern Area Studies, Professo Dawsonl but with the exception of a few small grants for some young men, Dawson has been unable to achieve a viable unit, for the simple reason that nobody particularly wants to work with him. He is embittered as a result; and I would say that the reporter took his bait, hook, line and sinker. The President has shown an earnest of his support of Northern research by providing a highly efficient analytical labor- atory which is unique in Canada: this laboratory is avail- able to all local industry and has not had the publicity it deserves. We, like all universities have a group of faculty members and students who have developed destruction as a way of life. Of course, we have real internal problems, but it is quite unfair and false to characterise either the University or the College as timid. Is flying four hundred miles north to teas Indians timid? Is the building of a first-class university 4n-such an unlikely place timid? Were the faculty who have given up homes, in their native lands to cross the seas and teach in relatively unknown parts, timid? I agree with a faculty member from Laurentian on another point - the images of Sudbury and Thunder Bay are appalling, and we find great difficulty in attracting Canadian faculty, for city-bred Canadians are apperently agoraphobic and fear our wide-open spaces. On several occasions, prospective fa~ culty members have been advised by our immigration officers overseas not to come to Northern Ontario, "as it's all mines, snow and reilway yeards"! imagine the Toronto article has tarnished our image even further: our recruiting will be made that mich more difficult. The reporter missed the most glaring observation of all - that is, the inoredible effect that the University and College have had on the district. The benefits have ranged from the obvious one of providing an unimpeachable standard of education, to an amazing enrichment of culturel life. Thi is quite apart from the money-generating function: funds that used to travel with the students to Southern Ontario are spent locally. Without the University and Gollege, the local employment picture would have been very sad over the past two or three years. : What is needed is a new look at our whole northern proble If ever educational institutions needed support, it is those in the Northland. The "educational dollar" spent in the no is a minute fraction of the total provincial educational bud- get: instead of knocking down valiant efforts to establish these vitally needed but highly vulnerable institutions, we look for a realistic level of support from the province. We cannot possibly achieve what appears to be demanded of us un- less our per capita income is doubles. -In the meantime, we devote our efforts to giving northern students a first-class education, and providing our faculties with the facilities they need on a pathetically small budget. SCHREIBER KINETTE: CLUB PRESENTS 17TH. ANNUAL \ FASHION SHOW, FASHIONS BY ZELLER'S COUNTY FAIR PLAZA SUNDAY, APRIL 12TH AT THE SCHREIBER HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM. TIME - 8 P.M. ADMISSION - ADULTS - $1.00 STUDENTS - 50¢ REFRESHMENTS SERVED TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM ALL KINETTES REPLY TO TORONTO CITIES - Cont'd from last week's News The College, by the way, saved the taxpayers an enormous sum by getting first-class equipment at very low cost. In-- eidentally, both institutions are using TV effectively to pro- vide educational programs for outlying communities, farther from the City of Thunder Bay than Sudbury is from Toronto. We receive virtually no extra funds to travel over these en- ormous distances. I was interested to read that the Faculty at Laurentian University heve problems with five-year forecasts. We face the same unreasonable requests - the Minister, through his slide-rule wielding henchman Dougles Wright and his faceless wonders the Board of Regents, asks us for reams of statistics at impossibly short notice: even the larger institutions have diffioulties in preparing them; but the small ones suffer most having to devote too large a proportion of their small incomes te fighting this peper war, with scholarly work being corres- pondingly short-changed. Now, may I write a few words about Lakehead University? So far from being the comic opera institution the correspon- dent saw during his brief visit, we have a faculty, facilities and students of international calibre: our products almost invariably do weil when they go on to post-graduate or pro - fessional work at more senior universities. As for our course being irrelevant to the north, we cannot work in 8 vacuum, and although we do our best, we cannot create the demand (which at present is virtually nil) until our colonial govern- ments in' Toronto and Ottawa have a change of heart. For ex- ample, it is a national disgrace that the CYC is the body that has brought radio to our native peoples; while our national broadcasting system, explicitly charged with that responsibilé ity does virtually nothing to meet the need. Our young people do not want courses relevant to the north because they recog- ise the cynical neglect of the north; and apart from teaching d a few mining and forestry jobs, they need education for he word outside. cont'd next colum ceccee John Hart. DO YOU KNOW - that varnish can last a lifetime, | if it is oiled regularly and kept away from direct heat and sunlight.

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