INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / OCTOBER 17, 1989

 

 

Student Access Memorandum continued from page 6

 

and Fraser Valley Colleges. Prelimi-
nary discussions have been most
successful. | expect by Christmas
time, we will have achieved a com-
mon set of understandings
regarding a data base, population
demographics and participation
rates over the next ten years. This
will allow mutually exclusive
plans, which will have mutual sup-

port.

COOPERATIVE PLANNING
WITH OUR NEIGHBOURS

As an offshoot of the Lower
Mainland discussions, Kwantlen,
Douglas, and Fraser Valley Col-
leges have formed a planning con-
sortium. This involves the
planning officers for each institu-
tion meeting on a regular basis, to
share assumptions and planning in-
formation. Al Atkinson represents
Douglas College on this group. In
addition, information is being col-
lected on activities and plans on
Academic Computing (John Mc-
Kendry); Program and Services
Review and Assessment (Al Atkin-
son); and Professional Develop-
ment 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 hear reports from
our representatives on task groups.

JOINT PLANNING IN
CONSULTATION WITH SFU

In addition to the joint plan-
ning among the three Community
Colleges 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 under-
standing of our regional needs for
tertiary education.

Our first project has been to
commission 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 each
institution upon the total popula-
tion.

This planning model will re-
quire stated assumptions of the
relationships 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 assump-
tions 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 eight
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. One option being ex-
amined, is a new campus in the
central Fraser Valley.

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

Gordon Gilgan tells me that
some very promising possibilities
are opening up in the area of im-
proved sciences articulation. The
long moribund topic of block trans-
fer to the third year level has resur-
faced.

In the meantime, SFU is ex-
perimenting with some upper
division courses to be offered at
Kwantlen and Fraser Valley during
this year.

 

These discussions have also
produced some other promising
considerations, such as a laddered
curriculum leading from career
programs into professional level
training at SFU and U.Vic. While
work has been underway for some
time in the area of nursing, it ap-
pears that other career program
fields in which we are involved,
such as the social services, also
hold promise for linkages for a con-
tinuum of learning for our career
program graduates.

At this time, Bob Cowin, our
Research Officer, has produced a
set of projections that tie in Govern-
ment mandates for increased stu-
dent access, the separate plans of
Douglas, Kwantlen, Fraser Valley
and SFU, and seme projections
showing the required level of
growth for each institution, if the
Government mandate for growth is
to be met.

Our own planning system is in-
tegrating well with these external
consultations. The next cycle of
departmental planning will be en-
riched because of them.

Please let me know if there is
further information you need, or
observations you would like to
make, @

Bill Day

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