Grad Time at UNBC
Thursday, May 30, 2013 @ 3:50 AM
Some of grads from the class of 2012, photo courtesy UNBC
Prince George, B.C.- When the UNBC graduation ceremonies are complete this weekend, the University can brag that it has graduated more than 10,000 students.
The numbers include nearly 3,000 Bachelor of Science degrees, 2,000 Bachelor of Arts degrees and educated nearly 1,000 nurses.
Although UNBC has less than 2% of all university students in the province, each year it produces more grads for the North than all other BC Universities combined. “. “Looking at the list of our graduates, we see the future of our communities” says UNBC President and Vice Chancellor George Iwama “ the engineers, scientists, teachers, health care workers, entrepreneurs, administrators, parents and leaders who will help sustain northern communities and improve the world.”
The celebration starts this evening at the Bentley Centre at the University with an Alumni Awards reception. Tomorrow, there will be two ceremonies at the Northern Sport Centre. The first, slated to start at 9:30 in the morning, is for the graduates from the College of Arts, Social and Health Sciences. Then, at 2:30 in the afternoon, the College of Science and Management grads will receive their degrees.
Comments
First, congratulations to this year’s graduates. Completion of your degree is a milestone in your achievements.
Looking past the celebration, it is interesting to see the politics in Dr. Iwama’s “press release” listing Engineers as the first profession listed in the future of our community. According to UNBC’s website, the only Engineering program is a joint program between UNBC and UBC.
The following is an excerpt from the website:
“The program starts with a two-year foundation in mathematics, basic and environmental sciences from UNBC. In the third and fourth years, the program provides a thorough education and training in engineering fundamentals, engineering analysis and engineering design, largely through courses in Civil Engineering and Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of British Columbia.”
In other words, UNBC does the first two years of University Transfer to UBC. This is no more than two year community colleges have been doing across British Columbia for over 40 years. And UNBC students are limited to Environmental Engineering.
Maybe Dr Iwama can get a real commitment from the Liberals for a complete Engineering program now that the election results are in. After all, Ms Bond did say to see her after the election in a previous press conference.
Several months after a public challenge about non-Env. engineering program proposals in UNBC, still nothing has been heard. As was discussed earlier here there are some internal political roadblocks (i.e. ENV) in front of new engineering programs in UNBC.
The logic is not that complicated if UNBC does not open new attractive degree programs, the enrollment numbers and subsequently the number of students graduating will go down and its operating budget continue shrinking (cf $10 Million in deficits in 2013-2016).
… what is Dr Iwama’s solution?
Is Christy Clark going to run for a by election in West Vancouver or in Prince George? If she runs in PG we can ask her about engineering programs.
I dont know anything about your proposal univ but if its not gaining any traction perhaps it is not as good a proposal as you think it is?
In PG? LOL. She is not going to move from Vancouver. She has a son she is attached to very closely. I suspect she will do what is best for her son AND for the province.
I am not sure why one would be unable to ask the Premier what her government will do with respect to the Wood Innovation Centre and its potential relationship to UNBC or UBC or BCIT or CalTech or whoever will be willing and able to address the issue.
PG is one of the safest. It will be another political disaster if she runs again and cannot get elected. This time it is not about the fear of NDP taking over and it will be on her and on her record. If she fails again the BC Liberal seat no will shrink from 49 to 48.
Getting back to UNBC, I don’t think with a growing deficit and declining enrollment, UNBC is in a position to be choosy about proposals.
The perception that if you are not affiliated with “the” special interest group, your input is not considered is the root of current mess in UNBC. The study of perception and cognition is the research area of the current acting dean of enrollment.
“perception in theory” vs “perception in reality” …
I think I forgot to attach the EEG or fMRI of my brain with the proposal ;-)
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