THE INSTITUTE spring 1998 / planet of the arts 43 YEAR 20 O PROPHECIES FOR THE NEW MILLENIUM ET By Irene Kang | can't believe such strange Too much time has passed creatures were my ancestors Looking towards the new millenium Where has my race gone to? I'd rather be myself than those primitive "creatures". Scholarshi, d from previ page So now my question is, “Why do we have scholarships if there are so many inequalities in them?” “To reward academic achievement” is the defence, but it’s hard to make achieve- ment without the proper funding to start with. Why can’t academic merit be awarded with awards, not rewards (money)? Beyond mone- tary value a scholarship looks good on resumes, it inflates people’s images when applying for jobs or grants (someone wearing Tommy Hilfiger All-American geek-wear explained to me: “the rich kids need a scholar- ship for their image — not neccessarily for financial assistance.” I think the word he may have been looking for was “want”. Everyone wants a scholarship, but who really needs one?). So isn’t a scholarship really just a title? Wouldn't a Dean’s List or Honour Roll achieve the same agenda? Hell, you can even throw an awards banquet and give out plaques for less money than the scholarships. I know the scholarships are made possible through private donations and corporate sponsors (one of which is the evil, evil Walt Disney Company — well, they may be morally wrong but at least they pay our bills). And some of the sponsors might intend their money solely for scholarships, but Pll bet most of the sponsors would continue to donate to the school anyway — they donate to inflate their image in the community, not to create inequalities between the students. So now the way I see it is that everyone is using everyone else to enhance their image. ECIAD uses its students and their talents to attract sponsors and more pupils, the sponsors use ECIAD and the reputation of its students to attract and appease customers, and the stu- dents use whatever they can get their hands on to attract employers and sponsors. Isn’t this game of use and abuse of images acceler- ated by the scholarship system (but somehow everybody is left wanting more)? Sorry to say it, but we’re not solving any problems here, just adding onto existing ones. So how do we correct the problems? Well, to be quite honest I don’t know for sure; sadly, ’m not God and I can’t fix the ways of the world. All I can do is suggest an alternate route of recognizing artistic merit at ECIAD. Give out titles and plaques if honouring merit is so important that it has to be done to keep the planets aligned, but use the money given to ECIAD to enhance the entire envi- ronment of the school. By now it is probably obvious to the reader that I don’t believe the ritual of giving money to “deserving” stu- dents is fair and I don’t think making finan- cial distinctions between students is going to correct anything, either. I would like to see efforts being made to encourage progress with all 800+ full-time students, rather than only 42. If you give a scholarship to one stu- dent the money only helps them, whereas if you keep the money at ECIAD you can help all the students. Wtih $63,000 we could prob- ably afford to keep the school open until 3 a.m. year-round and students won't have to go around signing petitons. Or use the money to repair the leaking ceiling or get better lighting in the North Building. If you improve the environment of the Institite, chances are you will improve the work being produced within its walls as well. Perhaps we should give all the money to one School each year, then every four years the individual schools would have a $63,000 budget to buy new equipment or supplies for all its stu- dents. There must be more effective ways of spending $63,000 every year than just giving most of it away to kids with rich parents. ce) O52 F9 BLVE PINDER. OF COLOUR S5rm NEGATIVES CASH keEward IF FOUND JOSH BECKETT- 730 0084 J BECKETT @ECIAD .BC.c A. Don't finance what you don't support... the bottom line isn't just the profit line At CCEC we are dedicated to community economic development: ¢ all types of loans - e ATM card/credit card business, personal, ° mortgages - lines of credit residential and © chequing and savings recreational property accounts ¢ lower interest rates on loans to co-ops © term deposits and societies e RRSPs Call CCEC at 254-4100 “Serving community businesses, co-operatives, non-profit organizations and their members” CCEC Credit Union 2250 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. VSN 5P9 Tel: 254-4100 Fax: 254-6558 travellers’ cheques THE INSTITUTE spring 1998 / planet of the orts 43 YEAR 2QOOO Prortcies ror the new MILLENIUM Too much ine has passed Where has my race gone to? eather be myself than tone primitive “resture™ bills). And might intend their Sag ee mee BLVE BINDER. OF COLOUR 25mm NEGATIVES CASH kewarn IF FOUND JOSH BECKETT- 730 0084 J BECKETT @ECIAD BL.ca, Don't finance what you d port. the bottom line isn't just the profit line At CCEC we are dedicated to community economic development: ‘all types of loans - © ATM card credit card business, personal, 6 mortgages ~ lines of credit bh pam ‘* chequing and savings recreational property accounts ‘ lower interest rates ‘travellers’ cheques on loans to co-ops ‘and societies * term deposits