The provincial government could stand to work on its review process to prevent the type of uncertainty College of New Caledonia (CNC) is facing over its Aboriginal services program in the opinion of Ray Gerow.
CNC officials were prepared to make a presentation in Victoria last fall in hopes of maintaining funding for the program beyond the three-year duration of the pilot phase. Instead, they'll have to wait at least until the B.C. Liberal leadership contest is completed to see what happens next.
"Unfortunately, governments don't do it that way but you would think 'o.k., let's evaluate it after year two and if it's working, let's find a way to keep it going,'" said Gerow, chair of CNC's board of directors. "But they don't, they do this three-year thing, they take a year or two to evaluate it and they say 'hey, we love what you guys are doing, let's carry on.'"
Instead, CNC is searching for ways to keep the program going while simultaneously facing a $1.85-million budget shortfall for 2011-12. The province had been providing CNC $400,000 a year to operate the program, which had generated a 126-per-cent increase in the number of Aboriginal students, to 1,552 from 744, and the number of credentials achieved by Aboriginals rose 126 per cent, to 156 from 69.
Science and Universities Minister Ida Chong said this week funding to continue the program will not be in the coming provincial budget and remains pending a review of the 11 such programs being operated at colleges across the province.
"Come hell or high water, we're carrying on with the hopes that it will get reviewed, the province will say we've been doing a bang up job, here's some money to carry on with it," Gerow said.
Any follow up program will require a retention campaign to go with the recruitment, he added, and suggested the momentum will continue.
"If we've got double the students now, I would be surprised if three years from now, we've doubled that again," he said. "We haven't plateaued, if you look at the huge, pent-up demand."
