The Cadre, Nov, 11, 1975, page 5

Our Proposal-"and Bake

Perhaps the single major item which came out of the strike melee of the past week was President Baker'S~ proposal to create a group consisting of support staff (including administration) faculty,and students to re- view the present budgeting proce dures and to attempt to come up with some alter— natives,specifically,with regards to wages and sal— aries?

Since he, perhaps dew liberately,left out any specifics,it is difficult to tell exactly what he meant.was this to be simply a committee or advisory group?0r was it to replace the Board of Governors and or Senate.Was it to cover the entire range of the budget,including perhaps a sub—committee on corrup— tion.0r was it to deal only with salaries.lf it was to replace the present gover- ning system .If the later was the case,then would it be set up as two bodies or one. Was it to be elective, appointed,or a combination of the two?

It may be that the Pres- ident was being vague7as to divorce himself fromior marry himself to»any more specific proposalfidepending on whether it failed or succeeded.Maybe.

\Or possibly he is attemp—' ting to diffuse the oppositn ion into tiny groups which

V squabble among themselves

on the smallest of points, thus rendering the total- ity impotent.

More likely though,the simple answer is that he has little or no conception of what a system based on

"social justice" would look like;that he , in fact,re— gards the idea as Utopian and therefore unworthy of

‘considerationzIf this is the

case, then the only reason he would bring up the idea in the first place would be to convince his opp- onents ~that it is indeed impractical. -

We muSt, then, turn his_ idea on its head and prove to him that such a system is indeed possible.Implic— it in the President's original outline is the suggestion that not only is our present system not based upon social justice but it is not even the best allocation of university resources.Apparently the only basis for a salary raise(or I suppose lower— ing) is that other people in equivalent positions outside the university are already making the new wage.Hard1y,to say the least,a purposeful method, let alone a just one.

If it is ever going to be possible to have a system raison d' etre is social

_justice, then we must first

of all define what 'social justice' is, and secondly lay the perimeters of a‘ _'just' system. (w

A definiti0n*6f social justice is really quite simple., Social justice simply implies that each and every man, woman, and child gain full and equitable re— turn for the contributions which she or he has made to society at large. .

Secondly, the differenc between the smallest and the largest returns must not be too great. Rather than

EASENT STR UJLEJ;

UCTURE'

providing 'incentive', such differences provoke greed, selfishness, envy, and pride —~emotions we have tradi- tionally associated with the downfall and degrada— tion of mankind.

Most importantly, and in some absolute sense, social justice is each person_gon— tributing equally to the decisionFmaking in a spirit of compromise and openmind- edness.r It is upon this condition that the other two are predicated for their continued welIFbeing. 'is that one person has more power in the‘prOcess, then' he will, almost‘inevitably, use that extra leverage for personal gain. Power cor—. rupts.

And if the process is carried on in a manner less than befitting of a human ' being'(and this means any? where the participantldo not respect each other as indiv- iduals), then it will either break down and be replaced by something bearing the marks of oligarchy or will be simply sterile and Void of meaning.

Hence 'social justice' carries within itself the three ideasof a fair return, a decent return, and equal say in decisionrmaking.-

'To bring this claSer tO’ the present context,we must

turn as greatmamount of con-

trol over to the general membership of the univer- sity community as possible, to broaden the base of our elective bodies and to ex— pand their activities to

allow as many as possible to.

participate directly, rather than through a 'repfesenta— tive'. If the Greeks could

If it

-7< I

operate on that basiswith 40,00-person populations, then surely we‘can do the same with 1800 or‘so.‘ .

Secondly we must eradi— cate this atmosphere of mist trust and disunity in the university community. If the present strike has had One major effect, it has been to heighten the tensions al— ready extant in the commun— ity. -‘

Clerical workers can see little or no common inter— ests with the maintenance workers. Faculty feel thre— atened by both. Students,in what was a genuine attempt to reach out and aidmnther group have only managed to badly split themselves. And of course, all three groups mistrust - no hate — the administration especially its leaders, Ron Baker, Den— nis Clough, and Merritt

’ Crockett. The latter in turn

shrink back nito the bureau- cratic maze they have creat- ed while, paradoxically, ignoring the outside world. Given this atmosphere, the Cadre would like to pre-

' Sent an alternative to the

present arrangement in the hopes that Sufficent people will take it unto themselves or, even'better, react to it and ‘ 'start my come with lbetter ideas of their own.““ ) The present system,‘ “With its multitude of inter con— nections involving the same people over and Over does not only refuse to allow most people to participate (witness this week's Bored meeting) but also confuses them to a great‘ extent as to who holds what position within the system. Not sur— prising ly the people at the

-—+C*ontrols -.---Memhe_r 0f

BOARD OF GOVERNORS I ‘ SENATE‘ Chairman: C.S. Trainer PRESIDENT 13 Faculty 9 Provincial Government ~— - «-—‘— -—- -—-d \ ' ” "" —" "" "“ “‘ 6 Students

6 Administration

It’s Q -A'.System;o:f\Soc

Appointees, 2 Students,

Profess0r Ronald J. 2 Facutly, 5 Administration ,

Bakerb

1 Holland College Rep

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