Major Changes to Board of CNC
Prince George, B.C.- The College of New Caledonia has undergone yet another change in the make up of its Board of Governors.
At its Annual General Meeting meeting yesterday, Don Gowan and Kevin Pettersen were made official members of the Board, having been appointed by the Province.
The Board Chair is now Jason Fisher. Fisher, Vice Chairs Mary Sjostrom and Lee Doney, were elected by acclamation.
Doney was appointed to the Board by the Provincial Government in late February. He was the former Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Advanced Education. At that time, the Government also parachuted in Sandra Carroll, the Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Advanced Education. When those moves were made, the Minister for Advanced Education said the appointments were to “provide advice and guidance” to the Board.
There are other changes to note. There is a new student representative on the Board, Harpreet Singh Gehlon, the new Faculty representative is Mark Wendling, and the Operational Employee rep is Sabreena MacElheron.
Former Chair, Vince Prince and former Vice Chair Lee Ongman remain on the board. Gone are Sheldon Clare, Steven Perison and Chris Brown. Robert Fowler from Burns Lake resigned from the Board during yesterday’s meeting.
In February, the Faculty had passed a motion of non-confidence in the Administration of the College and there had been a number of concerns raised by the satellite campuses in Burns Lake and Quesnel.
There was some positive financial news to come from the meeting, as the Board learned the College had an unexpected surplus of $1.8 million dollars at the end of the 2015/2016 year.
Last year, CNC made major changes to address a $2.8 million deficit. The College says those measures, along with increased enrollment resulted in the surplus.
The budget for the 2016/2017 year will not be finalized until next month as that budget had not taken into account a surplus. The meeting in May will look at a revised budget and possible options for using the surplus.
Comments
“Doney was appointed to the Board by the Provincial Government in late February. He was the former Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Advanced Education. At that time, the Government also parachuted in Sandra Carroll, the Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Advanced Education. When those moves were made, the Minister for Advanced Education said the appointments were to “provide advice and guidance” to the Board.”
So much for local control over local education, our local College is now being run out of Victoria by our provincial government… I thought the prevailing sentiment and thought was all about LESS government, and government control?
Ordinarily, I would be in full agreement, but under the circumstances, given who was on the board and more importantly, who the top executives of the college were, I think it became absolutely necessary to bring in outside control.
You made some very good points Krusty, thanks for the share.
is this what that 1.8 million surplus is paying for?
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