The Aurora College Foundational Review recommends transforming the College into a polytechnic university that provides numerous degrees as well as college education and apprenticeship training. It’s about time you say? I say woohoo!
The thing is, it won’t be easy to get this University because it’s going to cost a lot of money. So, read the recommendations and tell your MLA about the ones you agree with and the ones you disagree with.
First of all, getting more degrees and trades training right here sounds wonderful doesn’t it? I would have loved to get my degrees here and most people I know are the same.
Many of our students and especially those from the communities, have a difficult time when they move to southern cities, so I’m sure many more Indigenous people will pursue and achieve a higher education if they can get their degree or trade here.
Funding for upgrading
The Foundational Review recommends that Community Learning Centers “provide potential students with career counselling and support to upgrade their academic readiness and skills, ... to meet the requirements for the program of their choice.” Yay.
The upgrading from Grade 10 to 12 should come with funding that is a type of non-repayable student financial assistance (SFA). Right now, people can get income support to take upgrading, but they can’t get allowances like SFA.
That’s right! People are being forced to go on welfare to prepare for university! Sounds silly doesn’t it? Especially since the Department of Education supplies both SFA and Income Support.
In fact, the same assistant deputy Minister oversees both. It shouldn’t be too difficult for his staff to find a way to move the money from Income Support to some type of funding for upgrading so people can “meet the requirements for the program of their choice.”
After all, thousands of Indigenous people dropped out of school at Grade 10 or 11 because social passing moved them all the way to Grade 10 without having to pass a grade. Others graduated but need upgrading because they took lower level courses after getting a free ride into Grade 10, then could not pass the higher-level courses.
Don’t believe me? Statistics Canada says four out of every ten Indigenous persons aged 25 to 64 in the NWT don’t have a certificate, diploma or degree. I guess you could say that 40 per cent of the Indigenous adult population needs upgrading. Eschia!
Don’t forget, the NWT Labour Market Forecast and Needs Assessment Report projects that in the next fifteen years the NWT will have 28,500 to 36,700 job openings that need university or college education or apprenticeship training.
We can fill many of those jobs with Indigenous people by helping them meet entry level requirements for university, college, or a trade – or we can continue bringing southerners up here to fill those jobs. I say it’s better to get people into good paying jobs than to have them on and off our welfare rolls.
Main campus in Yellowknife
One of the key recommendations is to have the main campus in Yellowknife and to build a spanking new building. Well ya! That’s a no-brainer. Put it in a building built to be a university.
Plus, Yellowknife has half of the NWT population and numerous employers with which to do practicums. There are also tons of people in Yellowknife with Masters, PHDs and trade certificates who could teach one or two courses.
The report recommends that the new University should provide services including life skills and budgeting, financial counselling and health and wellness services like counselling.
These types of services will help those that take advantage of them. But many, many students won’t and from my experience, it’s the students who need them the most, who won’t use the services. Not cool!
So, I say heed that saying, “Give a person a fish and he can eat for a day; teach a person how to fish and he can feed himself forever.”
In other words, provide these services, but also teach the students these skills in mandatory classes. Remember the social problems and issues that colonization and residential school caused for Indigenous people? I know my issues didn’t disappear when I went to school. Did yours? Not.
Daycare and accommodations
The review also recommends that daycare options and additional accommodations for families be provided. Yes! Yes! Yes! So many Indigenous people have children at a young age and this will help them to get a better education.
It’s scary enough for parents looking at going back to school, especially if they have to move from a small community to Yellowknife or another campus; lets provide them with the basic needs of housing and daycare to ease their fears and to improve their likelihood of success.
So, as I said before, if we want this university to happen we have to tell our MLAs, especially the ones from the small communities. Why? Because some people will say that Yellowknife already has enough.
But, I’m looking at what makes sense. I’m looking at how we get more people educated, especially that forty percent of our adult Indigenous population without a certificate, diploma or degree. And most of them come from the communities.
I know I’ll be telling my MLA that I fully support the university. I’ll also promote the ideas I discussed here.
What will you do to help get this university for us?