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News by FFWD Staff Students’ protes saves millions A strong student protest will save University of Calgary students over one million dollars in tuition. Led by Students’ Union president Paul Galbraith, as many as 1600 University of Calgary students demonstrated outside the U of C’s board of governors meeting on Friday, March 26. The meeting was being held to vote on a proposal to raise tuition by 100 per cent of the provincially allowed maximum. Instead of accepting its finance committee’s recommendations, the board of governors instead chose a tuition increase of 80 per cent of the maximum allowed. For the last 10 years tuition has risen the maximum amount, and a similar increase this year would have cost a full-time students an additional $300 per year for a total of $3,740. The board of governor’s decision to raise tuition by only 80 per cent of the maximum will increase tuition for full-time students just over $200 per year, an $80 per year savings for students. The reduction in tuition will result in a $1.25-million shortfall in the university’s operating budget. In the days leadin up to the protest the Students’ Union encouraged students to pitch tents on campus to create a makeshift shanty town. The night before the protest, over 140 tents had been set up. Business Group apologizes to police Chief The Progressive Group for Independent Business has formally apologized to police Chief Christine Silverberg for a press release sent out last week claiming she was promoting racism. The PGIB sent a news release to Calgary media on Tuesday, March 23, containing the headline "Chief Silverberg promoting racism." The release criticized Silverberg for her recent comments regarding the police service’s need to reflect the city’s diverse cultural mix. The group, a right wing small business and taxpayer organization which claims a membership of over 2,300 in the city of Calgary, withdrew the remark in a press release on Friday, March 26. "The PGIB remains strong opponents of affirmative action and employment equity programs, as we fell people must be hired solely on merit," stated Craig B. Chanler, the national president of the group. "However, in retrospect the headline of the news release was wrong and defamatory and I am personally sorry for that." Night celbrates ad industry The seventh annual celebration of the Alberta advertising industry, The Ad Rodeo, held its gala evening in Calgary last week at the Westin Hotel with the agency Ogilvy & Mather taking Best of Show for its locally produced Telus campaign. The agency walked away with eight Anvil awards (six for the Telus ads, which feature a fat, bald guy – Bob – using utensils and popsicle sticks to explain Call Waiting Display and Voice Mail) from the show, which honours the best in advertising from print, poster, radio, and television mediums. Highwood Communications, Ad Farm, and Watermark Advertising took home four Anvils each. Fast Forward’s recent ad campaign – while receiving four awards of merit – was shut out of the coveted anvils, but was featured prominently in the week-long public display of entries called The Big Show. The only upside to the defeats was that, as the copywriter for the Telus ads, Fast Forward film critic Robert Tarry was called to the podium to accept most of Ogilvy & Mather’s awards. (Yes, he does have a day job.)   In a story on designer Shae Berry and the Calgary Cares fashion show in the March 18 issue of Fast Forward, we printed the wrong address for Pure Clothing. The correct address is 825 - 17th Avenue S.W. We apologize for any inconvenience this error may have caused.

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