North Island College Cutting Down on Face Time

Two North Island College satellite campuses in Bella Coola and Gold River will be closing down at the end of June, due to what the college says is a move towards online, instead of in-person, learning.

But critics say the North Island College is abandoning the people in these small towns and reneging on the institution's mission of providing post-secondary education to underserved areas of Vancouver Island and the mainland coast.

Final semester

This is the last semester for the satellite campuses of North Island College (NIC) in Bella Coola and Gold River. With reportedly less foot traffic to the centres, which employ one part-time administration worker each, the college has decided to shutter the centres and offer online access for people with computers at home or through existing First Nations education centres in the area.

"In Bella Coola we're partnered with the Nuxalk Nation and we're delivering education at their adult learning centre, and the same in Gold River, we're delivering education at the Mowachaht Muchalaht First Nation adult learning centre," says Susan Auchterlonie, the director of college and community relations with NIC. Access to the First Nations education centres will be open to aboriginal and non-aboriginal students, she says.

"We do the same in Ahousaht and in Alert Bay with the Namgis First Nation, and what we found is that we have very, very little foot traffic at the physical centres, and most of our work and our instruction has been done either by distance or at these adult learning centres with the First Nations."

Operating since 1975, NIC had 4,649 students enrolled in credit courses in 2009/10, which include everything from adult basic education and university transfer programs to fine arts and trades and technology; of those students, almost 1,250 self-identified as aboriginal.

Students can take courses online or at campuses in Campbell River, Comox Valley, Port Alberni and Mount Waddington. After June there will be one education centre left in Ucluelet.

Storefront learning

Currently NIC's education centres in both Bella Coola and Gold River are storefronts where students can access tutoring or write their exams. Each centre employs one part-time administration worker who will be laid off when the centre closes.

"The one individual in Bella Coola worked nine hours per week, and the individual in Gold River worked 14 hours per week. So the layoffs were very, very minimal in terms of hours worked and hours served," Auchterlonie explains, adding the decision to close the centres was not budget related, although they will save money on rent.

"The funds are going to be reallocated from the physical centre towards providing instruction at the adult learning centres, as well as towards intermittent and rotational programming at other locations as the needs arise."

'Community feels abandoned': Gold River mayor

But Michelle Waite, president of CUPE Local 3479, which represents NIC support staff workers, says the closing of the centres is just another step in downsizing the college's services.

"Over time they've reduced offerings at the locations, as well as the physical structure of the sites," Waite, who is an administrative assistant at NIC, told The Tyee.

"There were larger centres, there were more (course) offerings, and over the years, for various reasons, they've changed that model, and much of the education that the college now does in those communities is offered on either First Nations sites or connected to the First Nations. And so overtime they've reduced why people would want to access the centre."

Auchterlonie says before now the NIC hadn't made changes to either the Bella Coola or Gold River sites in the seven years she's worked with the college. But Gold River Mayor Craig Anderson, who is also a CUPE member, remembers when the college was a much bigger presence in his community.

"Because the college used to take up a good portion of the one mall, the upstairs, then they moved into a small corner of it and they still delivered a quality service," he says, adding NIC is the only post-secondary institution with operations in Gold River.

He believes students are more likely to go to the Campbell River location for an education than the Mowachaht Muchalaht education centre because most Gold River residents don't travel that way.

"There's not a lot of storefronts open in Gold River right now, so it's just one more empty store. It's one single mom without a part-time job, and the community views it like they're being abandoned by North Island College."

It's what the communities want: Auchterlonie

NIC had 12.5 full-time equivalency students in Gold River this year. Every student accessed the programming through the Mowachaht Muchalaht education centre about 4 km outside of town.

Just under five full-time equivalency students were taking NIC programs in Bella Coola, again mostly at the First Nations adult education centre run by the Nuxalk Nation. But Auchterlonie says one student from Bella Coola did access tutoring at NIC's education centre this year.

Neither the Nuxalk nor the Mowachaht Muchalaht band offices would comment on what the closure of the NIC education centres means for their education centres. An official from the Mowachaht Muchalaht office told The Tyee they have yet to meet with NIC to discuss the move.

Waite says she asked NIC what their new education plan was for the communities, but was told it was still being "finalized." Auchterlonie told The Tyee, however, that it was already underway.

"That's the model that I've been talking about. We're actually going to be providing instruction in communities, and working with our partners to use their facilities to do so. It's in effect now," she says.

"This is what's been requested of us by our community partners, and we're just basically delivering education as they wish. As opposed to having people come to us, we're going to them.

But Waite sees the move as narrowing access to post-secondary in rural B.C., going against NIC's mission statement of "meeting the education and training needs of adults within its service region."

"I'm disappointed that they're closing even the storefront. I believe that all of the communities in our region deserve access to a publicly funded education," she says.