Competing for Students: One Man's Opinion

Wednesday, April 19, 2006 03:51 AM

-by Ben Meisner

Last week outgoing head of UNBC Charles Jago talked about the problems of trying to attract students to UNBC.

This City faces a multitude of issues dealing with the matter. At present if we continue to grow our aboriginal contingent of students from about 10% to say 20% of the student body, is there not a fear the institution will be labeled as a university for aboriginal students only? That label would have many connotations regardless of how we might want to address them.

Then there is the matter of Kelowna and Kamloops. In the case of Kelowna they are trying to secure 7500 students in an effort to start their programs off with a bang, add to that the Kamloops template and there are a lot of recruiters out chasing the same possible student population.

Locally, Prince Geogre has been closing schools in the primary and secondary grades, the reason is simple, we have fewer students, fewer children in the non aboriginal population and so we are back to a catch 22.

UNBC has been hanging its hat on a new sports facility, with a final price tag (to the City and University) of over $10 million dollars that means the number of students needed to cover that cost in interest alone is about 50. Of course those dollars don't include the cost to maintain the facility.

Will such a facility be the reason that more students will head to Prince George? We have watched the problems of attracting events such as the world juniors, some 2010 venues, and other sporting events that come to the province. We already know the Prince George Cougars face the traveling problem as a daily routine, so what makes someone think that because we have a facility people will flock to this university?

We are known as a rural area in the north, with the great outdoors as our best asset it is there that we should have been concentrating our efforts to attract students with a like mind; it is there that we have done little.

I’m Meisner and that is one man's opinion.

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Posted on Wednesday, April 19, 2006 03:51 AM in Views by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: lunarcom on April 19 2006 8:40 AM

The University is a victim of it's own success. Things expanded too quickly without the supporting structures being expanded at the same time. I mean here we are 10 or so years into having the University and still no gym ! Kamloops (TRU) has a gym.

Even simple little things like a place to sit at the U. beween classes. They have lots of areas where the students have to wait for classes or an open area to gather but no place to sit down. Is that too much to ask ? It is little things like that when students check out the other Universities they decide to go somewhere else.

Posted by: Palopu on April 19 2006 11:42 AM

This University was destined for problems from day one. As I recall it was proposed and commenced being built by the Social Credit Party as a last ditch attempt to get re-elected. The campuses were strategically located throughout the Interior and West so that they would get maximum coverage for the venture. When they lost the election the NDP carried on and therefore we have the Univesity as it is to-day.

Had anyone cared to look at the demographics of the area at the time they would have determined that there was not a sufficient population in the Interior/North West/ to support a Major University, however the Politicians were not about to do that.

When there was a shortage of space at Uvic, Simon Fraser, UBC and they raised the average grades for entrance, then this University picked up some of the slack, however when there is a shortage of students down south then these students are less inclined to come up here. This situation of course has been made much worse by the establishment of the Kelowna, and Kamloops Universitys.

There is no reason to beleive that the population of Prince George and the surrounding areas to Dawson Creek, Kitimat, Prince Rupert, Williams Lake will increase in the coming years, and therefore you will continue to get less students going into the system, and therefore less students graduating and going on the University.

Because the economy is booming in BC at this time a lot more people are going directly to work rather that go to College, or University as they used to do because they couldnt get a job. This will also have a detrimental effect on enrollments.

Contrary to popular beleive a large percentage of people in the Prince George area were never in favour of bulding this University, however there concerns were pushed aside by Pomp and Circumstance, Hype, and Wishful Thinking. We are now at a crossroads with a University with a yearly budget of approx 56 Million Dollars, employing approx 700 Faculty and Staff, and a declining Student population. This does not bode well for the future.

The sports facility is another attempt to move into the big time, however it is destined to fail for the same reasons, not enough people to support it. Look at the Multiplex/CN Centre and the Cougers. Average attendence to Hocky Games for 2005 season approx 3000, if this number goes down then it will be hard to keep this team in Prince George.

We have to come to terms with the fact that we are a small city in the interior of the Province and begin to sell ourselves as such, and keep our goals more realistic. This constant crap about us being a Major Metropolitan Centre has to stop. We have a population of 75000 people at best. Hardly a Major City by any standards.