By Bryan Eneas

‘It’s just devastating for us’: Students weigh in on NORTEP partnership

Mar 15, 2017 | 5:00 PM

With the announcement of the NORTEP-NORPAC partnership with Northlands College, staff and students are taking in all the information they can.

Rielle Desjarlais, the vice president of the NORTEP student association said the move was surprising.

The NORTEP-NORPAC program provides teachers to the northern regions and bring these same people arts and science programs. The 38-year-program recently had its funding pulled to be redirected to other post-secondary institutions. Critics worried this move would hurt northern communities, force northern students to leave their homes and study or work elsewhere, and goes against federal Truth and Reconcilliation Recommendations related to education.

“Originally, Bronwyn Eyre said the NORTEP council had the lead to choose who they would wish to partner with,” Desjarlais said. “They figured Gabriel Dumont [Institute] was best suited for them, so that’s who they put in who they wanted partnership with.”

She said the move makes sense, as Northlands College has history in La Ronge.

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The college is almost 40 years old, and has provided northern Saskatchewan residents with “high quality” education and training programs since its founding, according to Northlands College’s website.

Northlands has three campuses around the North; Buffalo Narrows, Creighton and the La Ronge campuses. Additional programming is often provided outside of these three buildings.

“I’m looking forward to keeping NORTEP here with the help of [GDI] and Northlands College,” Desjarlais said. “Hopefully some more good things will come out of it.”

 Desjarlais said she has five weeks left before she graduates with a Bachelor of Arts and science degree.

“That feels exciting, and I’m a little bit saddened by it, because I built a home here the last three years,” she said. “It’s comfortable and I love how NORTEP makes it easy for people to come to school and get their education… if it wasn’t for this I don’t know what I would have done.”

Amie Bell, the president of the students association said she was upset by the decision.

“NORTEP chose the Gabriel Dumont Institute because we believe that’s what would best suit our program and be the best partner for us,” Bell said. “It’s just devastating for us, because this affects the program.”

Bell said the goal for students right now is to finish the school year. She said the students have no idea what to expect by the start of the next school year.

“For some students, I can say yes, some students will definitely be transferring to a different school,” Bell said. “For other students, including myself, I’m very unsure of what I want to do because we have yet to hear what expectations for the program.”

Bell said she doesn’t take any comfort in the fact GDI will work with NORTEP and Northlands College to oversee the transition. She said she feels as though it’s a move designed to appease people at NORTEP, who decided GDI would be the best possible fit.

Bell said she’s worried the partnership may not bring the same success as NORTEP has on its own as an independent program.

“This doesn’t just affect the staff, the faculty or the students; this also affects the future students who won’t have the same benefit,” Bell said. “What happens to the students who don’t get funding, and the same benefits as the students have for the past 40 years?”

She said this also affects the 2017 graduating class.

“A lot of them are in the [Teachers Education Program] and a lot of them wanted to return to the program to receive their Bachelor of Arts degree… a lot of people are disappointed this is happening and we want to know [if] we are still going to have the [Teachers Education Program] or the [Professional Access] program,” Bell said.

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca 

On Twitter: @BryanEneas