Excerpts from the President’s Report — April On March 23, representatives of the Ma- ple Ridge School District, the B.C. Institute of Technology and Douglas Col- lege met to discuss collaborative activities in Maple Ridge. The concept builds on ex- isting plans for the Thomas Haney Centre and adds BCIT as a partner. Once specific proposals are developed, they will be presented for review within the College. Meanwhile, College long-range planning and planning for Coquitlam’s Pinetree Site is becoming increasingly complicated because of shifts in the social, political and economic environment, and funding issues. As a result, both the College Opera- tions Group and the Education Council Association are sponsoring education programs on planning issues. A number of meetings have been held since April 14, dealing with fine-tuning as- sumptions for the construction of the Pinetree campus. Increasingly gloomy estimates regarding the ability and prepar- edness to fund additional fully funded seats has required intensive discussions that are still ongoing with Ministry officials. On March 30, College Board Chairman Myrna Popove and I were asked to repre- sent the colleges and institutes of the province at the budget lock-up. It was an enlightening experience and one that ~ holds promise of very useful communica- tion and cooperation in the future. We will be urging the Advanced Education Council of B.C. to consider collaborating on the budget issue with other public constituencies with parallel interests. On March 31, a group of senior education officials from Thailand were hosted by The Nicaraguans are coming! On May 31, Roberto Madriz and Emilia Ruiz from the Nicaraguan Institute for Popular Education and Research will be welcomed at a reception at the College. They will spend the summer here learn- ing to develop educational materials for their popular education programs for a group of agriculturual cooperatives in Nicaragua. The name of the project is the Popular Education Materials Production Centre. Funded by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges, it grew out of the ef- forts of a planning committee made up of Gillies Malnarich, Cecil Klassen and Car- men Rodriguez after the Literacy 2000 conference that was held at Douglas Col- lege in October 1990. "The people in those co-ops have identi- fied what they need the most, which are materials to do with family and women’s health issues, intertwined with environ- mental concerns," says Malnarich. "We've spent a lot of time on the project, and it’s paying off. It’s quite exciting." Instructional Media Service’s Jamie Gunn will be working with the Nicaraguans to INside INformation INside Douglas College is published the first Tuesday of every month by the Public Information Office. The next is- sue will appear Tuesday, June 1. Deadline for submission for next issue is noon Tuesday, May 18. Submis- sions on floppy disk in WordPerfect or ASCIl format would be appreciated. Material may be edited for brevity and clarity. Tips, scoops and suggestions are al- ways welcome. Please contact the Public Information Office, (604) 527- 5325, FAX: (604) 527-5095, Room 4840 at the New Westminster campus, 700 Royal Avenue, New Westminster, B.C. V3L 5B2 $s douglas college the College, on behalf of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges and B.C. Centre for International Education. The visit, and subsequent ones by Thai faculty and administrators, have been facilitated through the efforts of our Commerce and Business department. During the month, Cathie Cookson, Marion Greenwood, Gerry Della Mattia and I have met and discussed the concept of institutional wellness and the means by which we can develop an increasingly positive working environment in the Col- lege. We have agreed that Julie Roper can be of assistance to us all, due to her re- search in this area. Cathie Cookson and Gerry Della Mattia have met with Julie Roper and have agreed upon activities to be scheduled in May. & familiarize them with the hardware, so ware and other equipment they'll be taking back to Nicaragua. Once there, they'll train others in desktop publishing, graphic design and photography. But they'll be here until August, so Mal- narich hopes people around the College can come forward with ideas for ways to show the Nicaraguans around town and to give them glimpses of Canadian cul- ture. Activities might include inviting them to your home for dinner, meeting with community groups, or maybe just hanging out at Granville Island on a warm summer evening. If you would like to be involved, call Gillies Malnarich at 5411 up until May 31. After that date, call Jamie Gunn at 5254 or Cecil Klassen at 5175. Everyone is invited to the welcoming re- ception which will be held Monday, May 31 at 7pm in the Boardroom. a @