During the founding conference in Prince George (Jan. 18-23),
one of the most important issues, aside from the internal power
structure of the CFS, was the Knowlege Network and how it will
change the structure of education, especially in the interior
of the province. The 'Knowlege Network! basically means that the
classroom will be eliminated and replaced with a video monitor.

It is difficult to comprehend exactly what that means. Poss-
ibly, it may totally alienate and repress development of the
individual. The Knowlege Network is an invention of government
bureaucrats to justify cutbacks in education, so that the
expense of employing teachers:and the upkeep of the institu-
tions is eliminated.

The power structure within the CFS-Pacific, mentioned above,
was another issue. In developing the constitution, a decision
had to be made as to whether ‘representation by population'
would come into effect, or whether the 'status-quo' would re-
main. After the vote was taken, ‘representation by population’
was instituted. What that means is that each institution gets
One vote for every 8000 students on decision-making within
CFS-Pacific; any institution with less than 8000 students

will automatically get one vote.

Of course, the northern colleges were very much against
‘representation by population’. One can see why; U.B.C., with
it's 24,000 students would have 4 votes, while the average
college would have only one. But this is rather irrelevant;
what is importat is that the universities become full members
in CFS-Pacific. For example, U.B.C. alone, upon becoming a full
member, would contribute aproximately $18,000.00 per year to
the movement, thereby allowing the Student Federation to gain
momentum. So, one could say that the uriversities need the coll-
eges as much as the colleges need the universities, in order to
maintain a concensus in dealing with economic constraints and

the problems they pose.