INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE/NOVEMBER 29, 1988

 

era

President’s Report continued

in B.C. on federal monies for
the provision of technical and
vocational education. As the
Board knows, the steady
withdrawal of the federal
government from direct par-
ticipation in public vocational
und technical programs, is
throwing additional burdens on
provincial expenditures, and has
also left a gap in general public
policy relating to open access to
training. It is my understanding
that a new Associate Deputy
Minister is now being sought for
our Ministry, whose sole con-
cern will be "job training”.

This may indicate a recogni-
tion of the need for careful work
and planning in this field, and as
such, is a positive sign of new
directions.

The College will be favored
by an informal visit of our new
Deputy Minister, Mr. Gary Mul-
lins, next Monday - November
21st. [intend to broach this
topic with him at that time, as
well as the current situation of
Douglas College in terms of
space, programs, and the
proposed transfer of BCIT
programs to the College.

On October 24th, Mr. Dean
Goard visited the College, to dis-
cuss the nature and directions of
college/university relationships.
Mr. Goard is the staff officer
who coordinates inter-university
affairs between our three provin-
cial universities. The College
relationship is of increasing sig-
nificance to the universities, and
he visited our College in order
to get a sense of the current state
of the field through college eyes.

 

 

He spent a productive morn-
ing and afternoon, discussing a
range of matters with the Deans,
Directors, and Chairmen.

On October 26th, the Provin-
cial Access Committee
Consultation team visited the
College in order to obtain points
of view regarding the recently
tabled Access Report.

They met with representatives
of students, faculty, staff, ad-
ministration and the Board.

INTERNAL MATTERS -
EDUCATION

On October 31st, the new
Arts Management Program stu-
dents and faculty had their first
open house/social in the College
Boardroom. This program is a
product of collaboration be-
tween faculty in the Commerce
and Business Administration
and Arts and Humanities Depart
ments, and represents an
exciting array of students of dif-
ferent ages and backgrounds.
Enthusiasm is obviously high,
and reflects credit on those who
have worked so hard to bring
the program into existence.

On November 7th, I attended
a meeting of the Academic
Division faculty, on the topic of
position of Department Chair-
man on the pay scale.

On November 8th, a delega-
tion of students from the Visual
Language Interpreter Program,
visited me to articulate their
anxieties over their financial sup-
port through CEIC, and the
uncertainty regarding the length
of their program.

 

These concerns continue to be
addressed by Dean John Mc-
Kendry and Ms. Bev Miller,
Acting Director of Social Ser-
vices and Allied Health.

At the last Management Com-
mittee meeting, formal approval
was given to the creation of an
advisory committee of faculty
members to the Community
Resource Development Officer,
the intent being to recommend
on ways by which faculty mem-
bers could be given increased
assistance in obtaining access to
outside funds in order to further
faculty based projects.

At the last Management Com-
mittee meeting, Al Atkinson,
Dean of Educational and Stu-
dent Services, tabled a
document on long range plan-
ning, that contains specific
recommendations for improve-
ment of our long range planning
activities. The report focused
especially on the linking of long
range planning, to College
operations, the annual budgeting
process, and the notion of
specific accountability for
achieving of goals. Implicit in
the report also, is the concept of
linking marketing activities, to
the overall plan. Following a
lengthy discussion, it was
agreed that a regular meeting of
the College administration - the
management forum - would be
devoted to this topic. It was fur-
ther agreed that we would invite
representatives from the Student
Society, the Faculty Associa-
tion, and the BCGEU, because
of the significance of the report.

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