November 20, 1986.

 

MAD HATTERS

On November 13th we had a sizeable Japanese delegation at the College
taking a look at community colleges and how they function. These
were people from Japanese industry, and secondary schools, who were
interested in the role our institution plays in our local economy.

 

On November 17th I appeared on the Dave Barrett show as part of
the College Week exercise. A number of other CEO's from the lower
mainland appeared on other radio shows. Mr. Barrett, as former
MLA for Coquitlam showed strong interest in Douglas College. While
on the show, we received calls from former students of Douglas
College. Comments were uniformly appreciative of the College and
community colleges generally. Mr. Barrett said one of the problems
for a talk show, when talking about colleges, is that there is not
very much conflict because people tend to like them so much.

C. Internal Matters - Education

 

On October 24th, I, and Messrs. Doerr and Morfey, met with Mr. Ed
Swaren; the Acting Superintendent in Maple Ridge, to go over a very
complex two year developmental budget. This budget consists of
various, kinds of grant monies which we are marshalling together
to develop both a physical facility, by carrying out renovations
in two buildings simultaneously, and to develop a common education
program ‘with the school district. I commend Mr. Morfey for an
excellent job of analysis and presentation which, left the school
district people and us with a good level of agreement on how to
co-operate over the next two years.

 

October 28th to the 31st, we were visited by the Institutional
Self-Study Audit Team. Dr. DellaMattia will be commenting on that
later this evening.

On October 3rd I had lunch with Anita Hagen, our new MLA for New
Westminster. I have asked her, although she is very familiar with
the College, to pay a formal visit to the College. We are also
asking this of other new MLA's. Barbara Bessey is now at work setting
up the machinery for formal visits. We will be asking Mr. Murnane's
help as Chairman, and that of Board Members to see that the new
MLA's get an appropriate orientation to the College.

The Council of Principals' executive met with Dr. Grant Fisher on
November 6th to talk about the general political and financial scene
affecting the College and Institute system at the bureaucratic level.
Suffice it to say that there is very little information forthcoming
at this moment as far as financing for the next year is concerned.
Council of Principals was acting in a staff capacity to Ministry
personnel in dealing with certain issues, primarily inflation. I
have provided a document to the Board Chairman, which was engendered
by the Council of Principals, on the Council's views on the inflation
issue as it relates to: Colleges and’ Institutes. That staff document
to the Ministry will not be circulated publicly, but I have ensured
that our Board Chairman is familiar with the information it contains.
I believe that Mr. Trerise will have received a document along the
same lines through BCAC. A summary form of it appeared last Friday
at the meeting with the Minister, as an Issue Paper on Inflation.

 

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