Students at Selkirk College are frustrated by the BC Government’s $70 million cuts to Post Secondary Education. Despite Finance Minister Kevin Falcon promise that “the Province will work with universities, colleges, and other institutions to help ensure that front line programs are not affected,” these cuts have left Selkirk College with a million dollar budget deficit that has forced the College’s Board of Governors and Administration to propose the elimination of many second year programs including all sciences and fine arts.
Selkirk Students feel program cuts are the wrong way to fix this problem. The loss of complete programs has a clear result: students interested in studying such subjects will no longer come to Selkirk. The cuts to second year programs will have a similar effect contrary to the promises of the administration and the government. “The loss of the second years of programs will also negatively affect enrolment. Many current first-year science students have been heard to say that they would never have come to Selkirk if they had known that they would only be able to complete one year of study” says current science student Arielle Roberts.
Sean Mullin, SCSU representative with the Canadian Federation of Students, suggests that “with increasing budget cuts over the next three years, the situation at Selkirk College can only get worse if our Government does not start valuing Post Secondary Education and funding it properly.’
Students will be presenting Tuesday, March 27th, to the Selkirk College Board of Governors at the meeting where these program cuts are to be approved. We are asking anyone who values education to join us in solidarity at 4:30 pm in the Pit at the Castlegar Campus to show you support of Selkirk College and its students.