Another 30 layoffs bring SaskPolytechnic total to 180

Michelle Downton, president of the Sask. Polytech Faculty Association, said that they are feeling the impact of the decision, especially heading into a bargaining year.

“It’s really negatively impacting the morale around campus. We have faculty that are returning to industry rather than worrying about the, you know, their career in the future,” she said.

The cuts have been largely due to declining enrollment from international students, but SaskPoly said it expects numbers to rebound next year.

“This is a challenging time for Sask. Polytech, and these decisions are not made lightly. Throughout this period, our focus is on our students and on our mission, to inspire success in every learning journey,” said the school in a news release.

Downton said that the Faculty Association would like to see the school not rely so much on things beyond its control – such as international enrollment – for long term financial stability.

“We think it’s multiple factors that contributed to the overall layoffs and terminations that have occurred. One of them is international student revenues, but there is an aspect of fiscal responsibility that our administration needs to take ownership over,” she said.

While the province recently gave the school an increase in annual grants, Downton said the school could have done more.

“During this time of over-reliance of international student revenue, I think that they let the Sask Government off the hook a little bit for increasing grants to cover domestic students so we’re in a situation where domestic students are costing the institution money to educate,” she said.

Because the changes have been among international students who favoured the business program and those programs were run out the Prince Albert and Moose Jaw campuses, the two schools have seen the biggest impacts.

“Well, we’re noticing a huge impact on Moose Jaw and Prince Albert campuses just because they’re smaller in nature and they have fewer programs. Furthermore, business was run out of Moose Jaw and Prince Albert campus, and that was heavily, heavily international student based,” Downton said.

“So when we saw a reduction, we saw a profound reduction in the business departments and that has resonated so profoundly.”

The Faculty Association said they are worried about what happens if more cuts are deemed necessary.

“I’m afraid we’re going to be in a situation where it’s not sustainable to just keep teaching and I’m afraid of what that’s going to do, not only for the programs that Saskatchewan Polytechnic offers, but also the brokerage programs that happen through our regional colleges.”

In Prince Albert, for instance, the campus is a portal to the north and is able to recruit a lot of Indigenous students from northern communities who then return home and offer the services they have been trained in.

Those may be lost and despite low enrollment numbers, offer key training such as health information services which has also been cut.

“That is going to have huge impacts on our hospitals, our veterinarian clinics, a variety of industries, so I think some of these changes are going to be seen for decades.”

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

by Susan McNeil

Another 30 layoffs bring SaskPolytechnic total to 180

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