{"id":7294,"date":"2013-08-13T07:02:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T14:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=7294"},"modified":"2013-08-14T10:21:19","modified_gmt":"2013-08-14T17:21:19","slug":"camosun-college-gets-bc-provincial-funding-for-aboriginal-learners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2013\/08\/13\/camosun-college-gets-bc-provincial-funding-for-aboriginal-learners\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun College gets BC provincial funding for Aboriginal learners"},"content":{"rendered":"

In late June, the BC government announced that they were investing $4.4 million in postsecondary institutions in 2013. The money will go towards programs and other activities that improve Aboriginal students\u2019 experiences at universities and colleges across the province. Eleven institutions received the funding, including Camosun.<\/p>\n

The funding will go towards supporting postsecondary institutions\u2019 work with Aboriginal communities, institutes, and organizations, according to a BC government press release. The goal is to develop and deliver culturally relevant courses, programs, and supports to help Aboriginal learners\u2019 education and employment goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur government is committed to ensuring that Aboriginal learners can succeed in a postsecondary system that is integrated, relevant, and effective,\u201d says BC Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation minister John Rustad. \u201cBy facilitating and encouraging access to postsecondary education and training programs, Aboriginal communities and postsecondary institutions will play an important role in meeting BC\u2019s labour market needs, and in supporting the BC Jobs Plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony Nelson, Aboriginal education and community connections admissions and enrolment facilitator at Camosun College, says the funding is good news but would like to see an emphasis on long-term instead of short-term.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat way real work and real plans can be made to truly embark on building a program that can truly reflect the retention and education goals that this college so desperately wants to put forward,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Nelson says that one-off funding is helpful but has an inherent short-sightedness attached to it when it comes to larger goals for Aboriginal learners.<\/p>\n

\u201cProviding one-off funding or in three year blocks just isn\u2019t going to cut it, because nobody can plan beyond three years,\u201d he says. \u201cWhy would you want to build up a whole infrastructure for something that could go away in one or two or three years, if that funding is based on the will of the day, so to speak? If governments and institutions really want to be serious about Aboriginal recruitment and retention, then they need to come up with long-term strategies, and the government has to pony up the funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some feel the funding may be good news, but it doesn\u2019t address larger issues. Simka Marshall, Camosun student and Aboriginal students liaison for the Canadian Federation of Students-BC, says it\u2019s definitely good to see money going into Aboriginal programs, but the government should be focusing on making sure Aboriginal students can get into school in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely think it\u2019s good to see money going into these existing programs,\u201d says Marshall, \u201cand it is a big amount of money that\u2019s going into these services that support our Aboriginal learners. That\u2019s really important, because it is really challenging being an Aboriginal student in postsecondary. The one thing about this action the provincial government is taking is that it doesn\u2019t actually address the issue of access to postsecondary education for Aboriginal students, and it doesn\u2019t ensure that students who are already in postsecondary school have continued access to that education.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Simka<\/a>
Simka Marshall, Aboriginal students liaison for CFS-BC (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marshall says that removing the two percent annual cap on expenditure increases that the Postsecondary Student Support Program (PSSSP) has would be a big step towards improving access. The program assists First Nation and Inuit students with funding; Marshall says if that cap were gone, it would be a great step to providing access. She says the other thing that would improve access would be lower tuition fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cReducing tuition fees is the only thing that will increase access and remove some of those barriers,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Shayli Robinson, Camosun College Student Society First Nations director, agrees with Marshall. She says the funding is \u201cprogress\u201d and a \u201csmall step in the right direction.\u201d But she too feels that more needs to be done, particularly in regards to removing the PSSSP cap, which she feels is \u201cunacceptable\u201d to even have today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t speak for all the institutions, but I feel it to be a positive move,\u201d says Robinson about the funding. \u201cHowever, it is not enough, and I feel the government may be trying to take attention away from the PSSSP.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson agrees with Marshall that lowering tuition fees is part of the larger picture surrounding issues of access.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s part and parcel with everything,\u201d he says. \u201cIf tuition fees are a barrier to coming to school like they are for a lot of people, then some of the most disadvantaged portions of the population, by logical extension, are not going to be able to come to school.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In late June, the BC government announced that they were investing $4.4 million in postsecondary institutions in 2013. The money will go towards programs and other activities that improve Aboriginal students\u2019 experiences at universities and colleges across the province. Eleven institutions received the funding, including Camosun. The funding will go towards supporting postsecondary institutions\u2019 work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-july-17-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7294"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7456,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7294\/revisions\/7456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}