INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / AUGUST 8, 1989

 

 

Memo: Physical Space and Regional Planning Continued

 

Lower Mainland Planning

The new ministry organization,
is focussing attention on three
Broups of colleges - the Lower
Mainland; Southem Vancouver
Island, and the Central Interior,
Northern Vancouver Island,
Northwest, Northeast, and Eastern
British Columbia. These three
regions each have a Senior Minis-
try Official named as “Director”.
The Director for the Lower Main-
land is Dr. Jack Newberry, who has
been having regular consultations
with the Presidents of Capilano,
VCC, Kwantlen, Douglas and
Fraser Valley Colleges. His task is
to encourage cooperation among
the Lower Mainland Colleges and
also to act as advocate within the
Ministry on our behalf.

To date, these planning meetings
have been very useful. Dr. Newber-
ty has been able to address
questions of fact and conjecture to
the CEOs, and get rapid informa-
tion from the field. Being able to
Sit as a group with Dr. Newberry
has assisted the CEOs to have a bet-
ter understanding of the dynamics
of each institution and its region.
We are expecting that in due
course, there will be involvement
of both Universities, and perhaps,
BCIT in the general discussions.

Significantly different pressures
are being felt in each College, but it
is Clear that we share a common in-
terest in joint planning and
communications. I am happy to
report that there seems to be almost
no sense of narrow competitiveness
in the discussions.

As one result of these discus-
sions, Paul Gallagher and I are
working on a proposal to assess the
long term implications of the chang-
ing ethnic, cultural and language
“mix” of our adult populations.
This is already having an effect on
Dougias and VCC curriculum
offerings. We see a need for con-
sultation with our school districts,

 

with cultural minorities, with
goverment and with each other.

Cooperative Planning
Within the Region

As an offshoot of the Lower
Mainland discussions, Kwantlen,
Douglas, and Fraser Valley Col-
leges have formed a planning
consortium. This involves the plan-
ning officers for each institution
meeting on a regular basis, to share
assumptions and planning informa-
tion in order to ensure a minimum
of overlap or conflict in our as-
sumptions - thus making our
individual plans more powerful.

Al Atkinson represents Douglas
College on this group. In addition,
information is being collected on
activities and plans on Academic
Computing (John McKendry repre-
sents us on this group); Program
and Services Review and Assess-
ment (Al Atkinson); and
Professional Development for
Faculty (Eugene Hrushowy).

Peter Jones of Fraser Valley,
Adrienne MacLaughlin of
Kwantlen, and I have been meeting
about every six weeks for the past
four months, to stay in touch with
each other on planning, and to hear
reports from our representatives on
task groups.

Joint Planning in
Consultation with SFU

In addition to the Joint Planning
among the three Community Col-
leges in the Upper and Lower
Fraser Valley, we are simultaneous-
ly working closely with officials
from Simon Fraser University, in
an attempt to evolve a common un-
derstanding of our regional needs
for tertiary education.

Our first project has been to com-
mission a demographic study of the
region, which is intended to yield
reasonable projections for total
populations for the future, as well
as some working assumptions

 

regarding the likely “draw” of cach
institution upon the total p»pulation.

This planning model will require
stated assumptions of the relation-
ships between many career
programs and Simon Fraser Univer-
Sity, as well as lower division and
upper division programs.

Dr. Bill Saywell and Dr. Bob
Brown of Simon Fraser University
have been enthusiastically suppor-
tive of the project, and have
provided significant technical assis-
tance through the planning office of
SFU, in our joint work.

SFU is faced by many challen-
ges in its future, because of
assumptions for growth that have
been articulated by the Provincial
Government as part of the Access
Report. SFU simply does not have
the physical capacity to grow to the
degree expected over the next 8
years, without significant expan-
sion in physical plant.

It is facing the questions of
where that plant should be located,
and what kind of facilities they
should be.

In the meantime, SFU is ex-
perimenting cautiously with some
upper division courses to be offered
at Kwantlen and Fraser Valley
during this year. This overall ques-
tion about whether or not there
should be a Fraser Valley Campus
or some variant of that concept, is
under review at this time. There
will be some answers by Christmas-
time this year. I am pleased to say,
that SFU planning staff appears to
be most anxious for the assistance
and observations of the three ad-
jacent colleges in the process.

In this connection, Dr. Bob
Brown, Acting Academic Vice
President, has already consulted
with a number of people at Douglas
College, including Gordon Gilgan
(academic programs) and Jim
Doerr (Coquitlam Campus and
Maple Ridge).

continued on page 3
FSS 2 AA SE ES DDE. PNP ARE SEE

 

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