By Dale Miller
The Students’ Union’s Political Action Week is making post-secondary education an issue in the upcoming provincial election on Mon., Nov. 22, and everybody is happy with it so far.
“The week’s going better than we could have expected,” said SU Vice-President External Mike Bosch. “We’re getting tons of students out to the events, and plenty of media coverage to create public support for students.”
So far, some highlights of the week are the all-candidates forums for Calgary Mountain View and Calgary Varsity, and the now sold out “Rich Province, Poor Student” T-shirts. But perhaps the most effective and visual aspect of PAW is the commercials being aired on CFCN.
“We’ve had great feedback so far,” said Bosch of the SU and Alberta Union of Provincial Employees funded commercials. “People are happy to see a new group fighting the other public interest groups. We did the most we could with what we had.”
The SU’s three main concerns for the U of C right now are maximum tuition increases, budget cuts and the low quality of education. SU President Bryan West feels that these problems can be helped by an increase in base funding from the provincial government.
“We’re happy to have post-secondary education on the burner this year,” said West.
Up next for PAW is the Day of Action on Thu., Nov, 18, where post-secondary students city-wide will congregate at SAIT to spell out “I Vote” in huge letters for a media helecopter–show up at the MacEwen Student Centre north bus loop at 10 a.m. to get involved. On Fri., Nov. 19, there will be a Soup Kitchen in the MSC food court from noon until 1 p.m.
–With files from Ivan Danielewicz