DOUGLAS COLLEGE
ARCHIVES

President's Report to College
Board, April 19, 1984

A. EXTERNAL MATTERS - MUNICIPAL

Meetings of the Royal City Develop-
ment Group are ongoing, and promise
to involve the Collegé in a variety
of constructive ways with local ec-
onomic development initiatives.
Randi Duke, Community Resource Dev-
elopment Officer, is Gong Similar
work with the Coquitlam Chamber of
Commmerce, and is nowa‘member of an-
other economic development committee
that is working in the Maple Ridge/
Coquitlam areas.

The College has been invited to be-
come an active member of the Burnaby
Chamber of Commerce, and I intend to
assign one of our senior administra-
tors to that organization. Our dir-
ect involvement with Chambers of.
Commerce in the four municipalities
in the College region, will provide
us with valuable long term contacts
with the economic community.

B. EXTERNAL MATTERS -— EDUCATION

On March 16 and 17,
with a group of five her B.C,
ucators in extended meetings with
senior staff of the Department of
the Secretary of State, primarily
-revolving around the issues of
access of the adult Pepe tae ton to
post-secondary education and train-
ing. This meeting is likely to re-
sult in provision being made for
spec initiatives in the field of
adult access to post-secondary edu-
cation over the next year.

T pert et pete.

On March 27, the Council of Princi-
pals met for extended discussions
with the presidents of the three
universities, in order to identify
common problems, and shared strat-
oot eon ee ee the peop sen
of education funding over the next
two to three years.

The Distance Education Working Group}

consisting of representatives of the
pee Fey of Education, other minis-
tries, the colleges and institutes,
and the B.C. Association of Colleges
has completed its work, and submit-
ted a report to the Minister of Edu-
cation advocating a tong , term struc —
ture for distance education. It was
a pleasure to be associated with
this working Groups as it repre-
sented a level of collaboration that

 

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is unprecedented in the Province.

C. INTERNAL MATTERS —-EDUCATION |

The dominating feature of the past
month has been the receipt of our
1984/85 Cpr tae Budget, and in-
formation for 1985/86. The Colleg
is in excellent financial shape fo
this year, but difficulties are
likely next year. The Board will |
be receiving complete reports on
these matters in due course.

The Ministry of Education _has form
ally approved our 5-Year Plan, wit
some commentary with which we do
not agree. These matters are es- |
sentially technical in nature, and
therefore I will be communicating
with Ministry staff in this pegere.
The Board can be assured that the
5-Year Plan as Beevepr ly constit-
uted can be used with confidence as
a guage to decision-making. Mr.
DellaMattia, Dean of Educational
and Student Services, is commenc-
ing work on a review of the Plan
for its annual update and revision
over the next few months.

D. INTERNAL MATTERS - GENERAL

On March 24, the annual Casino
Night was held. I understand that
it was most successful.

The Student Financial Assistance
Trust Fund Board has met twice
and a considerable amount of act-
ivity has ahrGeey occurred, with
much more to follow. A number of
recommendations are being made to
the Board in this regard - all pos-|
itive, and all indicative of the
ap ropeneteness of the decision to
ablish both the fund and its
Board. I had the pleasure of host-
ing the community members of the
Board at lunch yeutereey and gave
them a tour of the facilities and
a description of the student body,
and our present curriculum. In
due course, I hope to introduce
members of the Board of the Trust
Fund to the College Board.

Further in the matter of student
aid, we are preased to inform the
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Board that the Student Society has
made a donation of roars to the
Trust Fund, which places us in a
good position to turn to the gener-
al public for assistance. It can
now be clearly stated that the
College as a community has already|
made substantial efforts in this
direction, and therefore we can ask |