Dan Patterson Given New 5-Year Contract
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Remembrance Day section Nicole Underhay as Cherie and Martin Happer as Bo Decker in Bus Stop. Photo submitted by Shaw Festival Pages 11-18 Photographer, David Cooper. Page 19 Dan Patterson given new 5-year contract By PATRICIA RODRIGUEZ Major achievements during his pres- Staff Writer idency include overseeing the restruc- Niagara College President Dan Pat- turing of the college’s administration terson has been given a new five-year as well as the construction of a $38- contract. million state-of-the-art campus in Nia- Niagara’s Board of Governors extend- gara-on-the-Lake. ed Patterson’s contract in July. It will end In addition, he has played an essential after the 2009-2010 school year. role in establishing and strengthening Patterson, who became the college’s partnerships with a variety of industries fifth president in December 1995, said and public sector organizations, partner- Niagara College “is a very exciting ships that he has stated are to be a key pri- place to work.” ority under his leadership. “I’m delighted to be able to lead as He said one major concern for the Niagara College CEO [chief executive next few years would be to “capital- What’s inside officer] over the next five years.” ize” on the government funding Patterson assumed the position of commitment and to “ensure” the vice-president of the Ventures Division improvement in the quality of educa- at the college for four years before tion provided to “our students.” Eight-page becoming president. “We also have an important role to “I love my work and the people I work ensure that more young people Remembrance with. The students keep me young, and acquire a post-secondary education,” the staff keeps me on my toes.” said Patterson. He says that concern Day “We have a very important mission should be addressed because to fulfil,” added Patterson. research has shown 70 per cent of pull-out He said there is still plenty of work new jobs will require post-secondary section to do to keep building a strong col- education. Niagara College President Dan Patterson looks at a book about China lege system. Niagara has a “very He said people are realizing that with second-year Tourism Marketing and Operations (Co-op) student promising future” in the next five “our greatest competitive advantage is Tong Zhang, 24, of China, during International Week at the Glendale cam- years, added Patterson. our people” adding, “Niagara College pus in Niagara-on-the-Lake on Monday. “We have an opportunity to make plays an important role in creating a exciting improvements and build on highly skilled workforce” that will be Student Photo by Takahide Eguchi success.” able to compete worldwide. Appreciation Serving our country Day Tuition increase complex, Niagara knows college administration says awards By PATRICIA RODRIGUEZ very complex issue that requires a and ROBIN HEALEY great deal of discussion” with students, Staff Writers government and any other concerned Niagara College administration hints party interested in post-secondary edu- that students should expect to pay cation in Ontario. Shaw more for their education next year. He says Niagara College has yet to On Sept. 30, Premier Dalton McGuin- take an official position on the pro- Festival ty announced the tuition freeze his gov- posed tuition increase. ernment implemented in 2004 would be However, he says the end of the reviews lifted for the fall of 2006. tuition freeze in 2006 will not affect Rosario Marchese, the provincial fees for international students. Interna- New Democratic Party (NDP) educa- tional students’ fees are set separately tion critic, introduced a private mem- from domestic fees, adds Patterson. ber’s bill to the Ontario Legislature on “I hope the common goal will unite Oct. 26, which would extend the post- us. We are all interested in quality edu- The Reel secondary tuition freeze for another cation and hiring the best teachers, and Deal two years. The bill has yet to come to having the best equipment and facili- Matt Hoare, a Royal Military College of Canada student in Kingston, a vote. ties will require additional funding,” Ont., carries a jerry can full of water through an obstacle course as Dan Patterson, president of Niagara says the college president. part of his training. See page 13 for story. College, says in a telephone interview Photo by John Misiti that “the increase of tuition fees is a Continued on page 2 Page 2, news@niagara, Nov. 11, 2005 ‘Corresponding mechanism’ needed to provide students with assistance Continued from page 1 Hudson adds the administration will need to that threshold,” adds Vaughan. last five years. determine how tuition, student assistance, and Jon Allan, 24, Student Administrative “[Niagara College] can’t sustain that kind Jim Ryan, chair of the Niagara College grants tie together before a decision on a tuition Council president for Glendale campus in of growth forever without compromising Board of Governors, says via e-mail, “The increase is made. He says a tuition increase will Niagara-on-on-the-Lake, is not looking for- class size and quality,” warns Vaughan. pressures on costs have probably driven the not affect enrolment and notes that research has ward to a tuition hike. He says that former Ontario premier need to raise tuition sooner. Those pressures proven no tight link between declining enrol- “Tuition should be regulated,” says Allan, Bob Rae, in his report Ontario a Leader in at the college level are mainly increasing ment and increasing tuition. a second-year Business Administration – Learning, looked at income contingent salaries and benefits of all college staff, He is supported by findings in The Price Marketing (Co-op) program student and St. repayment. Under such a system, Vaugh- higher utility and maintenance costs and the of Knowledge 2004, written by Sean Juror Catharines native. an says, “Students would repay their need to deal with reinvestment in aging and Alex Usher for the Canada Millennium “Tuition fees are not going to spike,” says loans based on their ability to pay.” buildings and equipment that had been Scholarship Foundation. Allan, although he concedes that tuition may “On the surface, that makes total sense,” underfunded for many years.” They write, “The evidence to support the “increase slightly beyond inflation.” says Vaughan. “Who will provide funding and how notion that price — that is, tuition and fore- He adds Niagara College “needs to keep a However, he suggests it could be compli- much money will be available are still the gone income — is a barrier to access is, in high level of quality,” so a tuition increase cated to administer given that incomes important questions at hand,” explains and aggregate sense, slim to nonexistent.” may be necessary to account for inflation. change over time. He notes that income con- Patterson. “Premier McGuinty has said that much However, Greener says, “Since 1990, tuition tingent repayment may need to be tied to Al Vaughan, Niagara College registrar, says like the price of bread, all things must fees increased so rapidly that tuition fees would income tax returns to work successfully. there are two sources of funding: tuition and increase,” says Jesse Greener, Ontario chair- have to be frozen until the year 2043 just to The McGuinty government commis- government grants to college. “We would pre- person for the Canadian Federation of Stu- allow inflation to catch up with the uncon- sioned Rae’s report to help guide its deci- fer to get sufficient money from grants instead dents in an Oct. 26 media release. scionable tuition fee hikes of the 1990s.” sions on post-secondary education. of [from] tuition to maintain affordability,” says “But I would like to remind the premier Allan points out the $6.2 billion the McGuin- Vaughan warns that a hard cutoff mecha- Vaughan, 49, of St. Catharines. “That’s the that between 1990 and 2002 the price of ty government promised to post-secondary nism to differentiate between those students overall concern: that [college] is affordable.” bread only increased by 16 per cent. Over education will be spread over five years, split who need financial assistance from those “The increase in the cost of college edu- the same period of time, Ontarians’ tuition between colleges and universities, and used for who don’t “assumes determination of need cation should not be a barrier to admission,” fees have increased 160 per cent — 10 times all services, not just tuition. is a totally fair system.” says Patterson. “We need to ensure that, if the rate of increase of bread.” Vaughan is skeptical that increases in gov- “The key to a good policy will be having tuition increases next year, we have a corre- Niagara College enrolment decreased ernment grants and bursaries would counter- a corresponding mechanism to open up sponding mechanism that provides students from 1997 to 1999 before steadying and act a tuition hike to allow students to pay financial assistance,” says Patterson. with assistance.” increasing through several years of record- less than they are now. Vaughan says, “There needs to be a graduat- He notes that college administration has breaking enrolment. “We would love that to happen, but we ed scale similar to income tax as opposed to a been working alongside the provincial gov- Vaughan says many factors were involved know that health care and other things have hard-line cutoff.” ernment to implement changes in student in the declining enrolment figures of the late financial pressures.” Ryan recommends “that students take the assistance to provide more funding to “off- 1990s and it would be “a jump in logic to He says Niagara College probably could- time to understand all sides of this issue and set” college prices.