INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / AUGUST 21, 1990

 

 

President’s Report

External Matters — Municipal

On June 11, a small group of
Douglas College personnel were
given an informal tour of the new
Kwantlen College facilities in Sur-
rey, by Bob Lowe, Acting Presi-
dent. The size of the new Surrey
Campus is roughly that being
presently envisaged for the Coquit-
lam Campus as a first phase of
development, so there was keen in-
terest.

On July 12, the Rotary Club of
New Westminster invited three of
us from Douglas College to make
a brief presentation. The Rotary
Club has donated a laboratory for
students with a variety of sensory
deficits, which will be located in
our Library. Gladys Loewen, Coor-
dinator of Disabled Student Ser-
vices gave an excellent review of
the project to date, and its mean-
ing for our student body. Mark
Crozet, Director of Resource
Development, gave a brief review
of College resource development
plans, and | provided a summary
of the significance of Douglas Col-
lege to New Westminster.

On July 16, I made a presenta-
tion to the New Westminster City
Council, on the significance of the
Lower Mainland Multiculturalism
Project which is underway at this
time. The New Westminster City
Council has given the project unan-
imous endorsation and has agreed
to provide information as the re-
search project develops. To remind
the Board, the Multiculturalism
Project is simply a means by
which school districts and colleges
on the lower mainland can
develop information on the sig-
nificance of the changing social, ra-
cial, and cultural mix on the lower
mainland, and implications for the
public and post-secondary educa-
tion systems. The Project will ad-
dress both formal and non-formal
education and service implica-
tions. All lower mainland colleges,

and school districts and virtually
all municipalities are now formal-
ly committed to assisting the
Project. Dr. Paul Gallagher, Presi-
dent of Vancouver Community
College, and I are acting as Co-
chairs of the Project which is being
funded by the Ministry of Ad-
vanced Education, Training and
Technology. The first stage — an
information gathering /research
stage, is due to commence in the
early Fall. The basic research
design has been drawn up by Bob
Cowin, our Manager of Institution-
al Research and Development.

The outcome of the Project
could have considerable sig-
nificance for Douglas College cur-
riculum, Community Programs,
Student Services, and even possib-
ly our policies on employee recruit-
ment.

External Matters — Education

During the month of June, the
Deans and I had the happy task of
presenting Douglas College
Entrance Scholarships at a number
of senior secondary schools in our
College region,. It is clear that
Douglas is well known and highly
regarded. The students to whom
our scholarships have been
awarded are of outstanding calibre.

Work has commenced on a
College position paper, on the mat-
ter of degree granting capacity in
the Fraser Valley. I have agreed
with the Presidents of both
Kwantlen and Fraser Valley Col-
lege, that we should make a
presentation to the Commission
that will be touring the Valley in
October and November. The basic
questions revolve around an ap-
propriate mode of delivery of
degrees in the Fraser Valley.
Various models have been mooted
—a campus of an existing univer-
sity; a free-standing new degree-
granting institution; creation of a
university college similar to

Malaspina, Okanagan, and
Cariboo Colleges; an "extension:
model of course delivery via
Kwantlen and Fraser Valley Col-
lege. Ihave asked Al Atkinson and
Bob Cowin to prepare a short
paper on the topic which can be
presented to the Education Coun-
cil in September for consideration.
In due course recommendations
would be forthcoming from that
body to the College Board, which
would provide the basis for a
Douglas College formal position
on the matter.

Al Atkinson, Jim Doerr and I
have reviewed a video-recording
of a meeting that occurred at
Fraser Valley College in June on
the topic, at which presenters of a
number of different opinions on
the matter joined in a panel presen-
tation. The presentations were
very illuminating — especially
that of a review of the implications
of university college status for
Okanagan and Malaspina Col-
leges to date.

Internal Matters — Education

On June 22, Mr. Bill Gartside
of the Douglas College Founda-
tion, Mark Crozet and I met to dis-
cuss the development of capital
projects in which the Foundation
would be of assistance to the Col-
lege, with a special reference to Co-
quitlam and Maple Ridge campus
development.

On June 28, the academic and
service line managers of the Col-
lege met with the Deans and
myself, to discuss development of
a mid-managers operations com-
mittee that would have an estab-
lished relationship to our new
governance model.

On June 29, Adrienne Mc-
Laughlin, President of Kwantlen
College, and I met with officials of

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