Erin Robb is leaving Prince George for a Vancouver dental hygiene program and she's not sure she'll ever come back.
Robb, 28, just finished two years of pre-requisites at the College of New Caledonia with a plan to take its two-year dental hygienist program, which has been suspended for at least another year.
The dental assisting program remains open.
"I was pretty much devastated. I had a good little cry the other day about it," said Robb of the news.
"If I have to leave, I'm not coming back. Prince George is my home but I feel like I've been run out of town," said Robb, who moved from Prince Rupert about 10 years ago. "I feel like I've put my entire life on hold for this. How long can I sit and wait on a maybe?"
She's been accepted to Vancouver College of Dental Hygiene for 2016, but said the tuition is about $37,000 so she's hoping to go to another college with lower rates.
"It means that I have to uproot my life to move across the province to a big scary city where I don't know anybody, try to come up with that kind of money," said Robb, who petitioned to save the program, spoke at the board meeting and wrote letters to local MLAs and the college.
The college sent a press release Thursday morning announcing the suspended 2016 intake, which was voted on at last Friday's board meeting. It also announced the continuation of dental assisting and a new introductory course to dentistry.
"The revised dental hygiene curriculum has also been sent to the Ministry of Advanced Education for review and approval. The Ministry will need to determine whether a revised tuition is appropriate for the revised dental hygiene curriculum," CNC's statement said, also noting it consulted with faculty and the District Dental Society about the "re-introduction process."
B.C. sets an annual two per cent tuition cap, but institutions can raise tuition more if programs are renewed or changed significantly.
When the college cut the program last year, it was facing a
$2.8 million deficit and said suspending the program would affect the least amount of students and staff and save the most money.
The college release said plans are ongoing to reintroduce the program "in the near future."
"I'm not sure what that means," said program founder Carole Whitmer, who has been working with other faculty on their own time these last months to revise the curriculum.
"That was one of the reasons I didn't leave last year, was to make sure the curriculum would be good. We worked really hard," said Whitmer, who noted the college education council urged the board to continue accepting hygiene students even as it re-worked the curriculum.
She said the board was told the Ministry could take as many as 14 months to approve the changes.
Board chair Vince Prince said Wednesday not knowing if the program would be approved by the province was one of the factors that influenced the board's vote.
Whitmer called the decision shortsighted.
"The faculty are really disappointed and frustrated about the lack of communication both internally and externally for both of the programs," she said and for "what we feel is a lack of support and follow up and we're concerned about the lost opportunity for students for next year.
"There isn't a clear commitment," Whitmer said. "It's a huge loss for the north. I know they say it's going to come back but we're not overly optimistic."
The college said there are three instructors in the dental hygiene program and two CUPE staff members that serve both dental programs.
It said conversations around layoffs won't happen until early 2016, but the college has labour adjustment strategies "in order to try to mitigate and avoid layoffs at every occasion."
Even so, Whitmer expects to be laid off, a likelihood echoed by Jan Mastromatteo, vice president of CNC's faculty association, "because of how specialized their work is."
"All three of us will get laid off," said Whitmer. "That's the other concern. I'm done. I'm going to retire, but it's very difficult to recruit qualified faculty for dental hygiene to Prince George."
She argued it would be smarter to keep even a partial hygiene program with existing staff, saying layoffs could cost the college about $150,000 in severance.
"Instead of those severance costs, why not just run the program?" said Whitmer, who has taught at the college for 29 years.
Whitmer said communication from the college has been a problem from the beginning, something she said was unfair to students submitting applications for next year.
Days after Robb got her acceptance for the 2015 intake, she got noticed that the board was suspending the program for a year. It was too late for her to apply to a similar program on the Island.
"I could go to Nanaimo but since they told us about this last minute I didn't have a chance to apply for 2015," she said, adding she would have had to upgrade a biology credit at CNC this year to apply.
"I just don't want to give (CNC) any more of my money."
But, Robb said she would be happy to pay more tuition if it meant she could stay in her hometown.
"We're always complaining that we want more people to come to the north," said Robb, who said the loss of the respected program affects the whole community: students, staff, dental clinic patrons, and dentists looking to hire new talent.
"Well, if you're going to take away things like this, that are so essential, that is the only available program up here, then why am I coming to Prince George?"
