North Shore housewives
“revitalized” by college

Four North Shore women, all housewives
with children, have been, in their view,
‘revitalized’ by their experience in the
Capilano College special general studies
program.

Tia Strachan, Alexis Musson, Jimmy
Tait, and Julie Thrift, have all been part-
time ‘‘mature’’ students in the two
semester ‘‘CAP A’’ general studies
program.

This program, which is.similar to the
Arts 1 Program at UBC and the new
General Studies degree program at SFU,
carries a bundle of academic credits
transferable to the universities.

However, university transfer was not the
main motive of these women in registering
the program. Like many others over the
age of 25 who signed up — the 45 students in
the program ranged evenly from 18 to55 —
they were timidly looking for some
stimulation and new horizons in reading.

The result? Jimmy Tait, one of the older
of the ‘‘mature’’ students exclaimed, ‘‘the
program has given me a _ tremendous
amount of confidence in myself. I had left
school at 16 and soon was into marriage and
children.

“FELT THWARTED”’

“Ever since I have felt thwarted
regarding my education and my ability. But
this experience has solved all that. Now I
am propagandizing everyone I meet about
the college program and urging them not to
wait to go back to school.’’

Alexis Musson put it this way. ‘‘I didn’t
even think I was smart enough to write an
essay asit was so many years since I had
gone to school. NowI know that I can write a
good essay and can read and discuss things
I never dreamed of tackling before.’’

Thefour women were part of the total of
seven in the program including a 50 year
old businessman, who registered as
mature students. Capilano College
encourages the registration of such
students, regardless of previous school
standing or non-standing, as long as they
are over 19 years of age and ‘‘inthe opinion
of the registrar can benefit from
instruction.”’

In this regard Tia Strachan, felt the
program and the reading had changed her
attitudes and outlook, explained ‘‘I had been
wanting to go back to school for years. I had
always regretted not having gone to high
school, thinking all along that I had to have
at least my grade 12 before the college
would touch me. I never knew such a thing
as a mature student existed.”’

OFFERED LAST FALL

The General Studies ‘‘CAP A’’ Program
was offered for the first time this last fall.
It is a one year, two semester program
consisting of nine hours of instruction-
discussion each week, mainly related to a
series of readings from Plato through to
the present and all geared to exposing the
student toa variety of different life styles
and ideas.

One of the instructors in the program,
Dr. Francis Burstein, indicated that next
year the central theme would be the images
of man. Inan interview along with the four
students she also spoke with warm
enthusiasm of the contribution of the
mature students to the success of the CAP
A program.

COMPLETELY INTEGRATED

‘“‘The mature students became
completely integrated into the group at an
early point, with age becoming of no
importance. I also was delighted at the
markedly high level of achievement of the
mature entry students, who received all of
the five A’s given in the first semester of
the program.”’

Now that they have completed the two
semester program all the women are eager
to do more work and reading. All of them
were keenly disappointed that the college
does not yet offer a second year of this
special program, claiming they wouldn’t
hesitate to sign up for it. Two of the women
now plan to take other courses at the
college next semester.

Alexis Musson, the one who originally
felt she couldn’t. write an essay and
incidentally got an Ainthe program, hopes
to transfer into the General Studies degree
program at SFU. Julie Thrift another A
student has no definite plans for future
courses; ‘‘I just want to do a lot more
reading.

‘‘Tam now reading things I would never
dared try before and enjoying them
tremendously. I have kept lists of all the
books referred to in the program that
looked interesting and nowI just can’t wait
to get at them.’’

So how about you out there? There is
another ‘‘CAP A’’ program starting at
Capilano College this September.

U.S. colleges have
money problems too

California community colleges have
their money problems just as_ their
counterparts do in B.C. but because they
have been established longer they have
greater public acceptance.

This is one of the major impressions
gained by Capilano College Council
member Jim McDonald during a recent trip
to San Francisco to attend the National
School Boards’ Association Council of
Community College Boards.

Mr. McDonald not only attended sessions
of the conference but managed to visit 16
different colleges inthe San Francisco Bay
area.

“I saw some beautiful campuses set in
most picturesque surroundings, but one of
the things that concerned me during my
weekend visit to many of the colleges was
the fact that there wasn’t any sign of life
whatsoever. They were all closed up tight.

It seemed a pity that these colleges which
are always so anxious to serve the needs of

the community don’t seem to be available to
the community on weekends when people
have the free time to use the facilities.’’

Mr. McDonald said sessions of the
conference were directed to ways of
stimulating greater community
involvement. ‘‘I learned a number of things
that I hope will be of use to Capilano College
in developing our programs,”’ he said.

‘‘Talso saw a number of colleges that had
temporary or portable buildings similar to
the ones being planned for Capilano at the
Lynmour site. These buildings were
attractive and seemed to be serving the
needs of the college.’’

As for the financing of colleges, Mr.
McDonald said that, as in B.C. there is
growing taxpayer resistance to educational
spending. ‘‘Ilookedat one college that had
had capital cost bylaws turned down four
years in a row. It was carrying on in
portable buildings.’’