Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 01/99) - A new student watchdog group is expected to be up and running this fall.

The NWT Students Coalition filed for incorporation as a society with the territorial government, Aug. 18, in the hope of better addressing post-secondary student concerns in dealing with Student Financial Assistance.

The group held their first meeting in June and has since met with Education, Culture and Employment Minister Michael Miltenberger and SFA to discuss problems students have encountered with NWT student loan matters.

"From the meeting we had back in June, we outlined some of our issues and then went to SFA through a meeting set up by the minister (Miltenberger) and talked through the issues with them," said coalition spokesperson Tawanis Testart.

"Our immediate hope is to get student support to address issues, like rising tuition costs and better services. We would also like to have student representation on the appeals committee as well."

The group plans to act as a support group for students travelling outside the NWT for post-secondary education, who encounter complications with their student loan and are unable to communicate grievances in person to SFA.

"We would like to help students with any questions or issues that arise through our Web page (www.olivegreen.com)," said Testart.

"They should contact us so we can address their concerns with the SFA."

"A lot of their issues were process related," said Education Minister Michael Miltenberger referring to a letter he wrote to coalition chairperson Moira Vane in response to their concerns.

"They had significant concerns in terms of funding, which are longer-term issues.

"A lot of the more immediate issues dealt with the timeliness of checks, being able to get in touch with workers directly and not some disembodied voice mail on the phone and better support from the department on the career development side."

"We're trying to make some immediate process changes as a result of the interaction with students and their concerns," said Miltenberger.

"We also have a legislative proposal that hopefully be ready for the 2000 school year that will deal with some of the monetary issues."