Selkirk College holds community meetings to determine future direction
By Kyra Hoggan
Grappling with dramatic funding cuts hasn’t prevented Selkirk College from looking toward an ambitious future, if a series of local community consultations is any indication.
Selkirk College staff and administration representatives travelled to each of the six regional communites in which one of the nine college sites are located, beginning with Grand Forks on April 23, Nelson on May 2, Kaslo on May 7, Castlegar on May 10, Trail on May 15 and wrapping up in Nakusp last night.
College president Angus Graeme said these community meetings came after an extensive consultation with students and the college’s 550 employees.
“The college is developing a new strategic plan for the next five to six years, gathering feedback from those three specific stakeholder groups,” Graeme said, adding the community meetings covered a comprehensive list of areas in which the college impacts the communtiy at large. “It has been really great – I’m very optimistic.
“We talked about how we can support the development of a workforce for the region (for employers ranging from small business to heavy industry); how we contribute to social/economic development; how we can best help high-school students transition to post-secondary,” he said, adding the discussions included brainstorming around how to maintain or even improve service delivery in the face of funding cuts.
“We talked about ways for Selkirk College to be vibrant and sustainable and continue to grow with all these things going on.”
He said there were several issues that came up repeatedly over the six meetings, including the use of alternate delivery systems (ie the Internet, Skype attendance, distance learning, etc), the needs of adult learners (Graeme said the average age of a Selkirk student is 27), and how to be a one-stop shop for educational needs prior to workforce entry, rather than solely a stepping stone to a second post-secondary institution.
“We gathered what we call our ‘laundry’ list of feedback and comments … we’ll upload all that into a program called ‘Thotstream’, which is a way of capturing themes and identifying common ideas,” he said.
“What we want is a renewed mission/vision/values statement, and then to identify between four and six strategic directions or priorities,” he said, adding the college’s last strategic plan was developed in 2005. “I’m looking for the new ideas; the innovations that will position us as the top rural college in B.C.”
As for the end result of the consultation, Graeme said it will take time to process all the information and feedback garnered, and the new strategic priorities will have to be approved by the board of governors, but he hopes to be able to launch the college in its new direction in the early autumn of 2012.
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