Program Cuts – 22 April 2018 Update

At the Board of Governors (BOG) meeting of April 16, 2018. Kelley Denham, a graduate of the SSW program in Perth made an excellent presentation on the success she achieved through the program. Kelley is a single mother of four who has a

full time job working in the field she was trained. On this alone she deserves our complete respect. Kelly is Program Assistant for Adult Learning & Training Centre in Smiths Falls. Kelley started a petition with respect to program closures at Perth, her reference during the presentation to the BOG of over 1000 names/signatures was stinging! She gave numerous examples of the positive impact of the programs on the lives of former students. She concluded by asking the BOG “Who was consulted on program suspensions”, which hit the main issue dead on. There was no response to this question. College administration looked completely out of step with what had been presented publicly.  The college is fortunate to have Alumni like Kelley and she deserves an answer.

The Local has reached out to cover her travel costs from Smith Falls, child care costs and supper as a small recognition of the time and effort she put into raising the awareness of the treatment of these programs. She is a real Star.

We continue to request information from the college at the CESC, related to both employment stability now and in the future. Some examples are listed:

1. Following the direction of President Cheryl Jensen to request full details from Academic Managers regarding mediation efforts for programs with suspended intakes has proven to be futile. Twenty-eight days has passed since the original request and there has yet to be a response from any level of Management.
2. On April 4^th, 2018 requested “Can you provide the costing for 2016-2017 for masonry program without the salary and benefits of the full time faculty member who left the program?” NO response
3. On April 9^th, 2018 requested “all the non-full time course loading requirements at Perth for fall 2018. We can use this in advance of the next CESC meeting.” NO response
4. On April 20th, 2018 requested “Given that the college has such a large financial surplus for a publicly-owned educational institution, has consideration been given to reducing program financial contribution in order to avoid program intake suspensions?” Response pending