Lo-tech b andits ransack lab s DC daycare closes in June Cuban star BY MALCOLM MORUM Pat O'Brien, manager of public some of the day cares are a year joins DC Lords Chronicle staff affairs for OPG, said they couldn't 'long. continue to fund the day care. Eight staff members and a BY JON KUIPERIJ "Over the years the number of number of part-time workers will Chronicle staff The Durham College and OPG families have declined," also have to find alternatives. Hydro Early Learning Centre in O'Brien said. "Every parent recog- Ginter-Brown said the college A former player for the Cuban national bas- Ajax will close its doors June 30, nizes the high quality the centre is committed to making every ketball team has begun classes at Durham and leaving eight staff members and provided, but the costs were such effort to work with the Ontario is playing basketball for the DC Lords. the parents of 65 children search- that we couldn't continue to sub- Public Service Employees Union, Juan Vazquez, who defected from Cuba dur- ing for an alternative. sidize." the Ontario College ing the Pan-American Games in Winnipeg last The centre operated for 10 At a meeting Jan. 19, a number Administrative Staff Association summer, has practiced with the Lords for the years, opening in 1990 as a part- of the parents of children at the and the employees at the centre past three months. Since he's enrolled in full- nership between Ontario Power centre were preparing to fight to to attempt to And areas of work time studies, he's eligible to play here . Generation and Durham College. keep the day care open. for them, including exploring "He's an outstanding, world-class player," The partnership was formed so Finding an alternative corpo- options for job placement, find- said Durham athletic director Ken Babcock. that Early Childhood Education rate sponsor and alternative fund- ing strategies for retraining and "It's even more important that he's in school, students could gain practical ing for the day care were some of offeringseverance packages. so he can learn English to stay in Canada training experience. the proposed objectives at the Ginter-Brown said Durham where he wants to be." Bonnie Ginter-Brown, execu- meeting. would also be open to a new cor- Vazquez's came to Durham because of his tive director of Student Services The parents, who felt that the porate partner. friend Augusto Duquesne. Duquesne defected and Communications at Durham centre was an excellent environ- "If a partner were to come for- in 1994 from Cuba, attended DC for three College, said originally 60 per ment for their children, said they ward and express Interest in tak- years and went on to star for the school bas- cent of the day care was used by want to keep Durham College ing the centre over and was able ketball team. Ontario Power Generation staff, and Ontario Hydro as partners in to fund the cost, maintain the Lords coach Ernie Armstrong is very happy but demand decreased as compa- their fight to keep the day care same quality care for the chil- to finally have Vazquez on the roster. ny demographics changed. open. dren, maintain the same learning "You can tell he's got a lot of work to do on Today Ontario Power They expressed concerns that experiences for the students and his conditioning," Armstrong said. "You can Generation pays 85 per cent of they wouldn't have time to find employment opportunities for also tell (he's got) experience." the centre's $280,000 annual new placements for their children our staff, the college would con- Vazquez couldn't be coming at a better time operating cost and Durham pays by the proposed June 30 deadline. sider this," Ginter-Brown said. for the struggling Lords team. With a 2-7 con- the remaining 15 per cent, and "June 30 isn't a lot of time Ginter-Brown said she is proud ference record, the Lords will likely have to go only seven of the 65 students at because there's, nowhere to put of the professional way the undefeated in their last six games of the season the day care have parents who your kid," Graham Stott said at employees and the staff of the to make the playoffs. The team's newest addi- work for Ontario Power the meeting. Hydro-Durham centre have han- tion will make his home debut on Friday versus Generation. Stott said the waiting lists for dled the difficult situation. 1-lumber, 2 THE CHRONICLE January 25, 2000 CAMPUS ABOUT $30,000 WORTH OF EQUIPMENT IS STOLEN FROM THE DC MAC LAB Thu ss raid Durham C olle ge BY LES UNDER Chronicle staff A group of bandits ransacked a computer lab at Durham College during the holiday break and helped themselves to some computer equipment. Cleaning staff discovered the break-in on Dec. 19 in (lie college's L-wing in rooms LI 23 and L127. They reported it to college security that morning and alerted police. Sergeant Jim Grimley, media relations officer with Durham Regional Police, said the break and enter occurred early that morning and that the sus- pects broke in through the windows. "They grabbed some computer equipment and moved it out through tlie broken window," said Grimley. "Some damage was done to other equip- ment and desks as they tried to drag away comput- ers that were cliained together." The suspects managed to get away with a flatbed scanner, a Power Mac, two data projectors, and a projector cart. Police discovered some debris out- side tlie windows and it was found to be from a stolen vehicle. "We believe they used this stolen vehicle to carry off the equipment," Grimley said. Blood was also found on one of the computers, wliicli Grimley said he believes is from one of the suspects who was cut while breaking in. Photo by Shown SImpson Chris Hinton, technologist at the college, heard about the break-in that morning and surveyed the CRIME SCENE: Brent Hudson, Mac lab technologist and part-time faculty member, damage. surveys the crime scene. "It looks like they got through the windows by yet calculated. students who use the labs at late hours." throwing a brick through it," Hinton said. He now "They weren't prepared well enough to take Neil said the suspects first tried to access the keeps the brick on his shelf as a souvenir. "It looked more, and it could have been worse," he said. room through one of the windows that had a steel like a frantic 10 minutes of theft," he said. "They Hinton said the college needs to be aware of the guarding, and failed. weren't prepared to cut through the cables holding extra security needed for computer labs and added "The break-in probably wouldn't have happened the computers down and they made a mess of tlie that bars for windows, security cameras, and in the first place if all the windows had some sort of room as they tried to pry equipment from desks." motion sensors should be implemented in more steel covering," he said. Hinton said the suspects knew what they wanted rooms. While Neil says that break-Ins are nearly non- when they came in and specifically targeted the John Neil, supervisor of security at Durham existent at the college, he also added that since the expensive data projectors. College, said the break-in might have been avoided college only has two guards patrolling at night, the "They actually smashed some of the tables to get if the room had security cameras or steel bars across entire college can't be covered thoroughly enough past the cables and even dragged the projector off the windows to prevent such crimes effectively. with the cart still attached to it." "I would like to see more cameras set up in the Anyone with information regarding the break-in Hinton said there was about $30,000 worth of Mac labs," Neil said. "They can help deter future. can contact Durham Regional Police at 572-1520 or theft and damage, though an exact amount was not thefts and provide additional personal security to' crime stoppers at 436-TIPS. COLLEGE NEEDS TO BUILD MORE CLASSROOMS Computers DC out of fail to go running space haywire BY LES UNDER rooms," Hargest said. "Some sec- Bruce Bunker, director of special Chronicle staff ondary schools have close to that projects at DC, is analyzing course BY LES L1NDER amount." curriculum and looking at the Chronicle staff Durham College is hard at work With a 4-10 per cent growth in number of staff and students to see trying to accommodate a growth students each year, the college will exactly how much space will be The Y2K bug proved to be a non- spurt and prevent students from need to create space to accommo- needed, and where. event as college personnel watched being shoulder to shoulder in class- date them, as well as create space "I model what is going on at the computers change to Jan. 1, 2000 with- rooms. for new programs. college to help determine the out a glitch. The college is trying to convince Simply building new rooms amount of space needed, " Bunker After spending several months the ministry to provide funding to based on the number of students is said. preparing for that single day, Gerry create additional space for class- not enough to accurately reflect the The college informed the min- Pinkney, executive director of informa- rooms in the Oshawa and Whitby amount of space needed, said istry on Nov.