The Cadre + 26 January 1999

Graduate programs to

raise tuition? Minister says “yes;”

Administration says “no.’

By MELISSADOUCETTE

On December 15, 1998, an amendment was passed in the provincial legislature to the University Act. With the change, UPEI is now capable of granting graduate degrees. The first graduate program to be offered at UPEI will be a Masters degree in Education (MEd.). The faculty of Sci- ence is also in the developing stages required to offer gradu- ate programs.

The amendment was debated in the legislature shortly before it broke for Christmas. Members from the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Liberal Party both ex- pressed support for the bill, but raised concerns surrounding tuition costs.

Both Nancy Guptil, Lib- eral MLA, and Dr. Herb Dickieson, leader of the pro- vincial NDP, questioned the Conservatives on increased funding for UPEI. Dickieson felt that graduate programs at UPEI will be “an advance- ment for all Islanders,” but indicated that the “big problem is the cost of education.”

“Mr. Minister [Chester Gillan], if you would consider placing a tuition freeze on tui- tion costs for university stu- dents, and also some help with grants and student loans. It would be . . . much appreci- ated,” stated Dickieson

Guptil repeatedly stressed her concern over tul- tion hikes. She asked Chester Gillan, Minister of Education, if the new programs would

I

require an increase in tuition

“To answer your query, will therefore the entire campus have to substantiate by a higher tuition increase? In all probability, yes,” Gillan re- plied

Buta tuition freeze would be unwelcome to the Univer- sity administration

Dr. Lawrence Heider, Acting President of UPEI, stated that he was against a tuition freeze. He claimed that if tuition was frozen and the University’s operating grant was cut, UPEI would have no way to replace lost revenues The result from this combina- tion could mean program cuts, he added

Continued on page 7

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Irish class at UPEI

Traditional Celtic Language of Ireland Finding Converts

ulation claims to e, and of these 71 thou- an Irish- ing community,

could be a minister in the Pres- the Irish

By RANDY McDONALD byterian Church of Ireland if pose geht a cea only 11 ce cent although he knew a few words ; a Idn’t preach in fluent people claim practs use Irish in everyday life. This semester, the Mod- he cou preach i speaking knowledge of the lan- O’Harewasnotbominto Continued on page 7

ern Languages department at Irish.

UPEI is offering courses in another language. Dr. Colman O’Hare of the English depart- ment is teaching almost 30 stu- dents the Irish language on Tuesday and Thursday nights. “Tt’snot like saying things like begorrah, it’s acompletely different language,” O'Hare explains, adding that Irish is a Celtic language, most closely related to Scottish Gaelic and Manx, more distantly to Welsh, Breton and Cornish. Eventhough the Irish lan- guage began its centuries-long decline in the 17th century fol- lowing the British conquest of Ireland and wholesale coloni- zation, as late as 1820 no man

In the 19th century, the Irish language took several severe blows, not least of which was the Irish Famine of the 1840’s that devastated the Irish-speaking districts of Ire- land, and the mass emigration that followed that catastrophe. Even in the 1920's, on the eve of the independence of the Republic of Ireland, school- children in the future Republic of Ireland were a if th e Irish in class.

i ay. though Irishisthe second official language of the Republic of Ireland and is a compulsory subject in Irish schools, Irish is fast approach- ing extinction. While athird of

~~ IRISH ~~ vert (Mi 101 Dae 5° will be offered from January to April 1999 on Tuesdays and Thursdays ~ from 7:00 - 8:15 p.m. 2.455%

Irish 101: a welcomed addition to the Modern Languages department

-Photo by Richard Haines