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By Sarah Murphy NEWS EDITOR

A little bit of expo- sure may be all that it took to push UPEI Panthers to victory and the crowd to the stands in recent weeks.

When asked by The Cadre what was wrong and what could be fixed within UPEI’s Athletics Depart- ment (AD), athletes repre- senting hockey, rugby, bas- ketball, and field hockey took the opportunity to bring up the lack of full time coaches, and therapists. Lack of promotion was also a concern, along with lack of presence from the members of the Athletics Department. Improvements to the department’s equip- ment and venues were also suggested.

“There were lots of inaccuracies in [the previous article],”’ said Barb Mullaly, UPEI Athletic Director. “I think there were a number of things that were attrib- uted to the Athletic Depart- ment as a whole, that really we don't have a whole lot of control over.” These in- cluded university budgets, and work done by mainte- nance. “[These things] I think could have been handled in a better manner if somebody had checked them out before.”

Mullaly maintains that the Athletic Department requests a yearly upkeep of the UPEI playing fields.

This was done, she said, but little can be done to prevent service vehicles such as snow plows who drive out on the field acci- dentally.

“These are the types of things you don’t have control over,” added Mullaly.

Mullaly also de- fended claims of poor at- tendance at Panther games.

“We have the best audience in all Atlantic uni- versities,” said Mullaly, then quoting an attendance of over 1000 people at this weekend’s basketball games. According to her poor attendance at prior events was not due to lack of interest, but simply to the fact that people are some- times simply too busy to attend the games.

Mullaly cannot jus- tify the need for an aca- demic advisor. A large por- tion of UPE] athletes have an excellent academic record she pointed out, and those who may be strug- gling can get help from their fellow team members who are more successful aca- demically.

“I’m not sure that there is a need for such a thing,” said Mullaly. “45% of our athletes have an av- erage of 75 [per cent] and above. We have 28 aca- demic All-Canadians out of 112 athletes.”

Like many other

things, purchasing new uni-

forms and equipment is de- pendent on budgets.

“The coaches deter- mine [the need for new uni- forms],” explained Mullaly. “We give the coaches bud- gets, and coaches have to decide within their budgets.” Travel, accomodation, and food for away games must also be covered by coaches’ budget, added Mullaly.

“Coaches pick out uni- forms, the Athletic Depart- ment doesn’t pick out uni- forms,” she continued. “Coaches decide how much money goes to equipment.” Increasing coaching budgets would lead to a tuition in- crease, said Mullaly.

But coaching staff disaggreed.

“T don’t think that is right,” said a spokesperson for Tracy Ellsworth, Lady Panthers basketball coach. “We had a sponsor pay for the uniforms, we didn’t get the money for it. It must be in Barb’s budget.”

Athletes would like to see a full time coaching staff at UPEI, but it is unlikely to happen.

A full time coaching staff is not feasible at UPEI, said Mullaly. Canadian uni- versities with full time coaches have Physical Edu- cation Programs which are taught by these same coaches. Bringing such a pro- gram to UPEI is unlikely, she

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Thousands of students protest post-secondary education cuts

By CUP staff Source: CUP member papers and regional bureaux

(CUP)-Thousands of students across Canada took to the streets on Wednesday (February 6) as part of the Canadian

Federation of Stu- dents (CFS) Access 2000 campaign.

The CFS, Canada's largest student lobby group, is calling on the fed- eral government to restore

$3.7-billion in provin- cial transfer payments for post-secondary education. Since taking office in

1993, the federal Lib- erals have cut $7-billion from post-secondary edu- cation and training.

Students in more than 50 communities joined the CFS in their call for more education funding.

In St. John's, New- foundland, 1,500 univer- sity, college and high school students walked out of classes to protest govern- ment cutbacks to educa-

Students in Newfoundland brave the cold (Photo by: Amanda Labonte)

tion. The protest was so boisterous that at one point a reporter from a local ra- dio station asked if there was a party going on.

In Charlottetown, more than 200 students at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPE]I)participated in a Kraft dinner lunch. The gathering was meant to highlight the impact high stu- dent debt loads have on stu- dents.

"We feel it went well," said Stephen Lewis, vice- president (finance) at the Student Union of UPEI.

"It's hard to get stu- dents out on this campus, so we feel this was a success- ful tumout."

Out in Quebec, cold weather did not keep stu- dents from protesting. About 200 students from

Concordia University, McGill Univesity and Université du Québec a Montreal bundled up and

marched in minus -15 Celsius weather

"The government has gone too far and cut too much from our programs.

I have decided it is not a good thing to not write editorials, it is a good thing to write editorials on the bottom of the page, so you know it is really all