If UNBC had a more industry job related program focus they would probably stay out of the red by being able to attract more people that are dedicated to the local industry. Mining/oil and gas are booming in this province and UNBC is about two deacades behind this sector which is the dominant revenue driver for the province. And even worse UNBC degrees arent really well recognized with industry outside of forestry. Employment focused schools such as BCIT and CNC for example are very stong competition for universities because they are more value added and they closly follow the labour market.

I don’t see a healthy culture of taking criticism in UNBC. Even you see in this site: those affiliated with UNBC machinery attacking and trying to silence the critics. It is the manifestation of the same culture that has brought stagnation and low morale inside UNBC.

UNBC is wasting a lot of money spending on its attack dogs and lawyers instead of spending money on paying professors and establishing laboratories to increase enrollment. When enrollment becomes the toppest priority of UNBC?

For a start, UNBC needs to reduce the bloated and unhealthy public relations office under Rob van Adrichem to its previous size before Cozzetto’s expansion of it and transforming it into a VP with more staffs.

There are questions needed to be asked and they need to be answered:

QUESTION: UNBC provost Dr Mark Dale’s performance was not satisfactory in terms of increasing the enrollments over his first 4 year term. The community deserves to know what was the rationale of the UNBC board and administration for rehiring him for a 5-year term and is there any performance clause in his new contract?

QUESTION: Who is responsible in UNBC for failure to increase the enrollments? The president, the provost, or both?

Since it is on topic for here, a partial repost from another thread.

Let me look at one example in Ontario that people typically do not look at, Sault Ste Marie –
City population = 75,141, metro=79,800 that is about as close as one can get to PG in size
Algoma University – Incorporated 1965, student population 1,253, international students (USA?) 12%
Sault College – incorporated 1965, 2,400FT and 4,500PT

BTW, Colleges in Ontario are typically referred to as colleges of applied arts and technology.

So, who has heard of Algoma University? They have existed for 50 years. Look at UNBC and the success it has had over half the time period, both in terms of students and programs as well as reputation from comparative assessments.

The problem here is that we compare ourselves to parts of BC such as the GVRD and even greater Victoria. That is not us.

We could be like Kamloops, like Nanaimo but have long ago lost the battle to Kelowna and its linear city from Vernon to Penticton and soon to come to Osoyoos.

We have a stagnant population base. Our “growth” has been in infrastructure replacement – look at the entire Health system and its facilities, UNBC to improve on CNC’s UT programs, the airport passenger terminal, as well as a different way of shopping – the box stores at Westgate. That is about it. No new major manufacturing, in fact a demise. Very much the same as Sault Ste Marie.

So. “Who is responsible in UNBC for failure to increase the enrollments? The president, the provost, or both?”

Sort of like asking someone working in ipper level management “Who is responsible in XYZ company for failure to increase sales over the last 5 years?”

MPB? US economic downturn?

Sometimes one is not in control of the factors which cause the lack of further growth.

Obvioulsy comapred to Algoma, we are doing just fine, thank you.

But, has anyone figured out what the saturation point actually is for UNBC goiven the characteristics of the region it serves?

I know, too difficult for “univ” or whoever to even think about. You have an in for actual people. Totally meaningless for this kind of forum. That is workplace gossip. UNBC is the workplace, not here.

As far as the people in PG are concerned, I thonk thepresident is in charge as well as the Chair of his Board of Governors.

Same as City Manager and Mayor. Wanna blame anyone at the city, blame them. The buck stops at their desk. Everything else is idle workplace gossip.

QUESTION: When is UNBC going to reduce the size of its bloated public relation office to its size before Cozzetto?

QUESTION: Dean William McGill’s performance as dean of CSAM was terrible and during his tenure the enrollment in his college shranked rapidly. What was the rationale to make him the acting dean of graduate programs in 2012? Did Provost Mark Dale make the decision?

QUESTION: UNBC provost Dr Mark Dale’s performance was not satisfactory in terms of increasing the enrollments over his first 4 year term. The community deserves to know what was the rationale of the UNBC board and administration for rehiring him for a 5-year term and is there any performance clause in his new contract?

QUESTION: Who is responsible in UNBC for failure to increase the enrollments? The president, the provost, deans?

QUESTION: When increasing enrollment will become the rationale for hiring or rehiring the management in UNBC?

QUESTION: Why UNBC has stopped making the UNBC senate minutes online? And whose decision it was?

“those affiliated with UNBC machinery attacking and trying to silence the critics”

Are we a bit paranoid, univ?

You have a cause that needs to be addressed by you at UNBC. Obviously no one there is listening to you after years of pursuing a lost cause.

Give some serious thought whether it is you or them.

Get together with Nowicki and form an anti-UNBC united front. ;-)

How am I doing JB? Am I making it look like I am employed by UNBC yet? … LOL

Hey folks, at the risk of being mistaken for Enbridge ;) it may time to cast a bit of oil on the waters and calm it down it a notch … obviously univ has a beef with a few specific individuals at UNBC (several of which I agree with); however, I am not sure how productive it is to lay those individual concerns out here … and Gus, you are having way too much fun “trolling”; doesn’t really look good on you :)

maybe a pollyanna moment but the real issue to me is, “How is UNBC going to flourish in a declining or shifting market?”

on re-reading my post the word “flourish” might better read “survive” depending on one’s view

gus, it is not me, it is you and your agenda here. you have gone as far as defending illegal practices like plagiarism in UNBC
http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/25590

and attacking the likes of Reichard, Ikeda who raised it. You try so pathetically to change the subject and deflect the focus from the questions and main issues. Why?

It seems to matter little to people in Prince George what the issue is. At the end of the day they will not deal with any problems. They pretend that the problem does not exist. If you cannot identify the problem you cannot fix the problem.

We can use the Airport as an example, where we have spent somewhere in the area of $50 Million dollars, and have not had one iota of an increase in business or revenue.

The $12 Million dollars on the Cameron St., Bridge did nothing for the City except to save some people a 2 minute wait when the old bridge was operating.

Our City is $110 Million in debt, and has to increase taxes, services, garbage, parking, etc; etc; just to collect enough money to pay for increases to staff.

We have industrial parks all over the City, but we get involved in a new industrial park on Boundry Road, which at best wont have any return to the City for 10 to 20 years, and in the meantime, with the Feds, Province, and City ($6Million) we have dumped $36 Million into this project.

We built a community energy system for no other reason that we could access Federal Funding, and as a result we are further in debt, with no real benefits from this project.

The list goes on and on.

The fact of the matter is, there is not sufficient people in North Central BC, to support UNBC on an ongoing basis. 70% of the students at UNBC come from the interior, however this student base is dwindling as we speak. If you look at the number of people in the school districts, the number who actually graduate, then look at those who are left that might go to University, deduct those who will go to Universities elsewhere, and you have a very small number of students left.

Strange as it seems. High unemployment is good for colleges and universities because people go to school if they cant work. When we get into situations like to-day where there are lots of jobs available, then student enrolments take a hit.

We are going to see bigger drops in enrolments at UNBC for the next 5/10 years because of the availability of jobs through out the Province, and the competition from UBC, Simon Fraser, Uvic, and other Universities.

It may very well be time to face the fact, that UNBC at best is barely surviving, and is destined for the dust bin of history if it doesn’t solve its problems.

Making it a University College and integrating with CNC might be one way to save it.

Being located in the middle of nowhere, with a 6 month winter does not help matters.

Bottom line is this University peaked about 5/6 years ago, and has been stagnant ever since.

The problem is students. If you cant get the students then you don’t have a University. Enrolments are the key. Practically everyone in North Central BC who took part time course at UNBC has taken about all the courses they want, so part time students will also start to decline, if they haven’t already done so.

UNBC has huge problems, and finally they are starting to look at them.

There is also a serious mis-management aspect to the enrollment problem in UNBC. When a dean or VP in UNBC increases the number of enrollments under his watch, it is expected that his contract be renewed and his good work duplicated.

What has happened in UNBC over the past 10 years is the reverse, the deans, VPs who have shrank the enrollments have been renewed and those who have increased the enrollments under their watch have not been rehired. Enrollment in UNBC is not a priority in re/hirings.

In the nineties, you could enter CNC as a mature student, obtain a diploma in Forestry Technology and then transfer to UNBC with two years credit (dean’s discretion) towards a degree in their 4-year program.

Now, if your transcripts are 10 years or older you will not receive any credits whatsoever. Even if you have worked in the field, are up to date with the latest regulations and standards and have to train UNBC graduates to make it in the real world. To earn a degree you have to start at the bottom thanks to their plagiarized entrance requirements.

CNC did a poor job negotiating college transfers with UNBC. Not one course in their discontinued Geographic Information System received any UNBC credits. Although, their course contend was equal or superior to UNBC’s (via auditing).

The problem with UNBC is that they lost touch with the northern community. On a quest to receive national laudation UNBC became the university that couldn’t delivery their mandate.

CNC did a poor job negotiating college transfers with UNBC. Not one course in their discontinued Geographic Information System received any UNBC credits. Although, their course contend was equal or superior to UNBC’s (via auditing)
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itelman, sounds like you had a bad experience … with respect, CNC cannot negotiate …the receiving institution, in this case, UNBC has the sole power to recognize the transfer credit … check the BCCAT web site, the CNC courses were recognized by other provincial universities … so, CNC puts out the product, UNBC chooses to recognize (or not)

anotherside
Thanks for the clarification.
So, UNBC did not only lose touch with the northern communities but also with established northern learning institutions.

Palopu: “Making it a University College and integrating with CNC might be one way to save it.”

The writing is on the wall and a possible merger will solve the problems of CNC students. But managing the merger process is a very difficult and stressful process.