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College faces cash crunch

NORTHWEST COM- MUNITY College faces another tough budget year as it copes with spending restraints.

While it will end its fi- nancial year Mareh 31 with a balanced budget, -it could face a $1.3 million deficit which means more cuts for the next year, says college president Stepha- nie Forsyth.

Approximately $500,000 of the potential deficit comes from infla- tionary and other pressures such as wage increases, but the bulk - $800,000 - rests with a provincial government decision to end support for part time vocational training pro- grams.

“That's a huge chunk of money for us,” said For- syth in noting that as it is, the money it gets now for part time vocational pro- grams isn't enough.

“It doesn't even begin to address our multi-cam- pus situation, It helps, but not in supporting our 10 lo- cations.”

The provincial decision to end its support of the part time programs is part of its general three-year plan to balance the provin- cial budget overall.

But the decision has re- sulted in an intensive lob- bying effort on the part of Northwest Community College and other colleges throughout the province.

“It looks like they might be beginning to change their minds,” said Forsyth of the provincial

Nursing program wanted

A MEETING here tomor- row will determine the in- terest level in having a nursing degree program here. ;

The plan is to offer the. a

first two years of a Bache- lor of Science in Nursing degree program at North- west Community College with the University of Northern British Columbia providing the third and fourth years, also in Ter- race,

Successful degree com- pletion then paves the way toward registered nursing status.

A: co-operative venture of this type isn’t new as UNBC has a similar arran- gement with the College of New Caledonia (CNC} in Prince George.

Beth Davies, who runs university credit programs for NWCC, says the col- lege.already offers all but two of the required first and second year courses needed to move onward,

“They would provide those and the final two years,” said Davies of the potential partnership with UNBC. ,

The meeting takes place 6 p.m. tomorrow at the UNBC offices on Park.

UNBC's Rob van Adri-

chem said the arrangement between his school and CNC has worked well. “The bottom line js that by training people in the north, they tend to stay in the north,” he said. Surveys of the UNBC- CNC program early on -have proven that out., van ‘ Adrichem added, ° That program has now grown to the point where 32 students moved up to UNBC from CNC last year, 41 did so this year and as many as 60 are due to finish at CNC and enrol at UNBC next year. “When. they graduate, they come out with a Ba- chelor of Science in Nur-

sing degree from UNBC,”

van Adricherm continued.

A successful nursing degree program would in some ways return NWCC to where it was in. the early 1990s.

It used to offer a diplo- ma program leading to re- gistered nursing status but

‘it ‘was cancelled “when...

budget and other: problems hit in the 1990s. .

response to the lobbying.

Last year. the college cut jobs, reduced services and raised tuition rates to fend off a deficit.

“Those awful kinds of -

things have paid off,” For- syth ;

But it continues to have a challenge in meeting provincial guidelines: re- quiring a set amount of students for. the money it gets from the province.

By March of 2005, the college needs to have re- gistered 1,825 full time equivalent students, —

It now has 1,570. full time equivalent students which is 92 per cent of its goal this year of 1,700.

“Last year we had 82 per cent, so we are show- ing a steady increase,” said Forsyth,

A failure to reach the mandated student level could result in the pro-

G

vince cutting the college’s budget even further and transferring that money elsewhere.

“But we're not going to let that happen. Qur man- date is to increase the number. of students and meet the demand that’s out there,” said Forsyth.

It means new programs to fit requests and more partnerships with commun- ity organizations.

In the works, for exam- ple, is a criminology pro- gram and more late spring and summer courses, which took place for the first time last year,

The college board does have the option of raising tuition fees to trim any po- tential deficit but the more they go up, the less likely people will be able to af- ford them, said Forsyth.

_ Its tuition fees - $1,410 for a full time course load

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - B3

Stephanie Forsyth

— are the lowest in the pro- vince. The College of the Rockies in the Kootenays, for example, has tuition fees of $1,737.

In any event, raising tuition wouldn't come close to solying any defi- cit, said Forsyth.

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