No Red Ink At CNC

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

The College of New Caledonia is sitting pretty in the financial sense

CNC Interim President John Bowman says the college is in the process of developing its financial plan for next year and, right now, is projecting a balanced budget.

"We have been, over the last couple of years, unfortunately in a similar situation to what UNBC is going through now," says Bowman, "And, certainly, we’ve had the headlines around lay-offs and program cuts in the past."

Bowman says there still may be some positions affected, but the impacts will be very small in comparison to past years and no program reductions are anticipated.

Flat enrolment at UNBC over the past five years sparked the job cuts announced at the university this week (see earlier story), and has prompted a re-focusing that may include more technical and business courses.  But Bowman isn’t worried this will encroach on CNC territory.

"We are meeting with UNBC on a regular basis to talk about how we can collaborate and work together to expand the post-secondary system in this region."  He says the two groups are scheduled to meet tomorrow and again on February 14th for further discussions to that end.  "We’re looking to complement the programs and services that UNBC offers and they’re trying to do the same as far as we’re concerned."

As far as enrolment goes, the picture has been much brighter at the college.  Bowman says, "Our enrolment is going to grow this year by probably more than five-percent, but it’s growing in areas like trades and career and technical program areas, as opposed to general arts and sciences."

"We have over one-thousand apprentices right now who are waiting to get into courses to do their levels one-through-four training in a variety of areas.  So there’s lots of prospective students out there, we just have to make sure that we’re offering the right programs and courses that they want." 

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