Ensuring Access at Confederation College

Happy New Year, and all the best for 2014!

It's great to be back from the holidays and once more talking about my passion - college education in Ontario.  In late December the southeast part of the province endured some pretty extreme weather, and hopefully the worst is behind us (or did I just jinx us all there...?).  Big respect to all of the linesmen (and women) who braved the cold to bring power back to thousands affected by the ice storm.

In the next few weeks I'll be completing posts about my visits to the various community colleges.  At the same time I'll be drafting a Report on College Education in Ontario, so January will be a busy month.

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After a warm and informative visit with Carolyn Gaunt and Local 655 at Cambrian, early November saw me heading north-west to visit with faculty at Confederation College.

The Shuniah Campus of Confederation College

Confederation was founded in 1967, and its main campus is located in Thunder Bay.  The college services approximately 215,000 square kilometres of northern Ontario through 8 area campuses.  Like Cambrian and Boreal, dealing with long distances and the unique needs of far northern communities present a constant challenge.  Despite this, the faculty at Confederation do an exceptional job at providing access to high quality education for 3,200 full time and over 17,000 part time students.

Faculty at Confederation are represented by president John Kornichuk and the officers of OPSEU Local 732.  I was able to meet with the Local executive, then with the general membership, and was impressed by the way Confederation's many far-flung campuses were integrated into the meeting via Skype. 

In the North, on-line learning is essential in accessing remote communities, and represents an appropriate use of this technology.  Despite this, it was interesting to hear a steward from BSCN nursing describe the hunger online students have for direct personal contact with faculty.  Because of this, faculty try to schedule face-to-face intensives at the area campuses, but are limited in this by budget constraints.

The intrepid team of Local 732

The impact of restricted funding is apparent in many of Confederation's operations, and particularly in staffing.  The current complement of 160 full time faculty is way down from a 1992 high of 242.  At the same time, part-time and sessional now outnumber full time by over two to one.

Management cost-cutting is impacting the trades.  Where apprenticeship programs once had one professor and one technician teaching a lab of 10 students, the college is now moving toward a single instructor teaching a class of 15 students.  Nursing is also feeling the pressure of increasing enrollments and decreasing staffing.  Classes once capped at 50 students now range from 65 to 70.

Along with a decrease in staffing and increase in class sizes, the funding crunch at Confed is also leading to the marginalization of faculty in academic decisions.  Whereas once a collegial attitude prevailed, with monthly meetings between the VPA and faculty, now many management decisions are made without consultation.  An example of this shift is the expansion of online delivery into locally-based programs, and to student groups that clearly struggle with a lack of face-to-face instruction.  Faculty complain, but are not heard.

The struggles of faculty at Confederation to maintain educational standards speak to the broader problem that also faces Cambrian, Boreal, Sault, and the next stop on my tour, Northern College.  The colleges in the North provide a critical service to their communities.  The original mandate of the colleges was to reflect the diverse needs of different regions, yet the move to a more corporate, competitive and resource-scarce model is making this increasingly difficult.  The Colleges' recent announcement of sweeping mandate changes and "differentiation" just furthers suspicions that the original vision of access and community responsiveness is fast receding.

Despite these formidable challenges, I left Confederation knowing that the faculty there remain committed to ensuring access to high quality education in the North.  This fact, more than anything, gives me hope...