Djs break Homolka ban

University radio censored

BY CASSANDRA A. SZKLARSKI (CUP) FIRST-YEARJOURNALISM STUDENTS NEIL Hiebert and Craig Knapp knew exactly what they were doing when they broadcast banned details of the Karla Teale (Homolka) trial.

The students at Winnipeg’s Red River Community College were D]s at campus radio station CMOR.

Listeners got more than they bargained for from the duo’s regularly scheduled all-request hour when they featured details of the grisly Ontario child-murder case published in the Washington Post and Newsday.

Hiebert said he and Knapp realized they were breaking the law as they did it, but they believed there was a principle at stake.

“We just didn’t really agree with the whole principle behind the ban,” Hiebert said. “Basically it’s a form of censorship and we didn’t agree with it at all, so we figured this would be our way of making a statement.”

BY RYAN STANLEY (CUP) A NOVA SCOTIA GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE says the province has too many universities training too many teachers, and it's time to get rid of some of them.

IN a discussion paper released January 14, committee of academics from across Canada lled for five Nova Scotia schools to eliminate eir education programs, and for teacher raining to be concentrated in three remaining Institutions.

It’s part of a government plan to reduce ducational overkill ina small province that has irteen degree-granting institutions and a tal student population of only 36,000.

The schools which stand to lose their lucation programs include some of Nova otia’s largest. Dalhousie, Saint Mary's and int Francis Xavier Universities are all targeted 0 phase out their education schools within a ear. The Nova Scotia teachers College, a overnment-run school with over 500 ducation students, would close its doors, and ¢ Nova Scotia College of Art and Design ould also cease training teachers.

Mount Saint Vincent and Acadia iversities, two medium-sized institutions, Ould be left with the job of certifying teachers

Their statement failed to impress the station management, who weren't informed about the broadcast, or the city police, who may have

and is not governed by federal broadcast regulations, so it is not in danger of losing its licence. But Barbara Krever, a spokesperson for the attorney-general’s office, said all breeches of the court-ordered ban are considered gravely, which means the students and the station could be charged with contempt of court.

The college’s student council, which owns

“Basically it’s a form of censorship and we didn’t agree with it at all, so we figured this would be our way of

making a statement.”

to press charges against the Djs and the station.

According to Winnipeg Police spokesperson Eric Turner, the Crown has instructed police to conduct an investigation into the incident.

The college station isa closed-circuit system

for Nova Scotia’s school system. The French- language Universite Ste. Anne would also remain open to serve the province's francophone community.

Few observers are disagreeing much with the report, which has been several months in preparation.

“It doesn’t make sense to come out here and find so many universities,” said Paul Osborne, an education student at Dalhousie. “There just isn’t enough money.”

Saving money was the reason the province established an advisory council in 1992 to look at combining or eliminating academic programs offered at several Nova Scotia universities.

The Nova Scotia Council on Higher Education, which was given sweeping powers over allocation of funds to universities, announced plans to examine duplication of programs in education, engineering, computer science, business and earth sciences. Education was the first area to be the subject of review, and reports on the others will be released before the fall.

The cost cutting scheme, known as rationalization, also includes plans to centralize the application process for Nova Scotia universities and to make credit transfers among

the station, has announced it will await the outcome of the police investigation before taking action. But in the meantime it has banned the students permanently from the station.

According to Hiebert, a classmate sent out media releases announcing the event.

schools easier.

Keith Sullivan, the head of Dalhousie’s education program, said the proposals did not take him by surprise.

In November, he said, the head of the council “told us that, in her words, it was going to bea bombshell.” The review team consulted heavily with administrators, faculty and practising teachers, he said, and he agreed with the main points of the discussion paper.

Besides closing the five education departments, the report recommends that all teacher-training programs require a general bachelor’s degree beforehand, be two years long, and that the training schools expand to offer both graduate and undergraduate degrees, as well as training for all levels of teaching.

The report also calls for the number of students accepted into education programs to be reduced by half. Currently, about six hundred new teachers are certified each year,

while only about one hundred get teaching

jobs in Nova Scotia.

Some students are worried the teaching profession will become exclusive. If admission rates are lowered, “your chances of acceptance are worse than your chances of becoming a doctor or a lawyer,” said Kim Leonard, an

“We just figured if we're going to do it there’s no sense hiding why we did it or deflecting publicity over it,” said Hiebert.

Despite this, Hiebert maintains the incident was not just a publicity stunt. “It was homogenized stuff [that was broad cast]. There was a lot more crude details we could have publicized if it was purely for shock value or to get attention.”

Radio manager Cory Petrachek said he had no knowledge of Hiebert and Knapp’s plans until he was notified by a newspaper reporter seeking comment.

Petrachek said that upon being notified of the broadcast he immediately took the duo off the air.

Hiebert said he disapproves of the station’s attitude.

“They're a really head-in-the-sand kind of organization,” he said. “To them it was just publicity and publicity’s bad.”

But CMOR promotions manager Don Beesley said the staff are upset about the duo’s actions because the station could be endangered.

The majority of the staff here think it’s a ridiculous publicity stunt.”

Nova Scotia will kill most teacher schools

education student at Dalhousie.

David Muttart, director of Acadia’s education school, said Nova Scotia education classes will still be much smaller than those elsewhere in Canada.

Acadia now has about 130 education students, and even if the program doubles in size, as he estimated it would, “250 students is still not a large number of students.” He pointed out that the University of Alberta has about 5,000 enrolled in its teacher-training programs.

“| think we can keep the same sense of community we've always had,” he said. Sullivan also noted that the reduction in the number of students enrolled will help keep classes small.

Muttart said beefing up existing programs would require a commitment from the government to pay for it.

“One does not expand without appropriate resources,” he said. “We sure can’t be offering courses on the front lawn.”

The Nova Scotia government has yet to comment on the report. Education Minister John MacEachern has said a decision will be made on teacher training in about two months.

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[ x.press january twenty-fifth 1994 page 5 |