Shocking news surfaced this week as the University of Guelph announced that they will close their satellite campuses in Kemptville and Alfred. Both campuses are losing vast amounts of money and are seeing declining enrolment according to the press release from the U of G. They are also the only agricultural colleges east of Guelph and serve mainly central and eastern Ontario as well as Quebec. However have been known to attract students from across Canada.
I have to wonder if Guelph has just forgotten about them up until now and not given them a fair chance. Agriculture enrolment is up in western Canada according to an article in The Western Producer, October 25, 2013. Olds College in Alberta is full with a waiting list according to the same article. The schools that are cited in this article have created new programs, attracted private donors, and have worked with industry to train for skills in demand. Why hasn’t Guelph done the same thing at their satellite schools? I can not imagine a situation where this is western Canadian specific growth. Would it be all that difficult to offer degree programs at Kemptville along with their diploma offerings; the infrastructure is there at the main campus and they tried it with a Bachelor of Bio-Resource Management - Equine Development to some success from the sounds of it. John Deere has a certified technician training program in conjunction with Olds as does Case New Holland; certainly these companies need technicians trained in Eastern Canada as well. Kemptville already has the heavy equipment training facilities on site and as an outsider it seems simple.
I was disappointed to find no social media presence for the Kemptville Campus, this is 2014 after all. OAC (Ontario Agricultural College) is on Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin, RSS and Flickr but nothing for Kemptville specifically. Even Campus d’Alfred has a Facebook and Youtube presence. Something is not adding up here, I would have thought that the best way to attract students would be to engage them on social media sites.
In a time where we need further infrastructure in agriculture locally, nationally and in global context and in a time when there are three jobs waiting for every Agriculture grad in Ontario it doesn’t make sense to me why these schools have to close. Is this a problem that could be solved with something as simple as marketing and adapting to agriculture in the 21st century? Probably not but shouldn’t they have tried a different approach before just pulling the plug. There are many memories there for all alumni and local residents and as a Kemptville grad (Aggie 2002) myself, I couldn’t imagine how my life would have turned out if KC wasn’t part of it. The outrage felt across Twitter and Facebook this week from concerned alumni is more than sentimental memories, the agriculture industry is strong in Ontario and across Canada and we as an industry are working hard to encourage more youth to become or stay involved in agriculture; closing one of our dedicated agriculture institutes makes this an even harder battle to fight. Once we lose a 97 year old institution, it will never be replaced. For further information please refer to these links.
Links:
University of Guelph press release: http://www.uoguelph.ca/news/2014/03/u_of_g_consolidating_regional_campus_program.html
From the President of the U of G: http://www.uoguelph.ca/president/blog/2014/03/facts_not_conjecture_needed_in.php
“Ag Sector interest sends university enrolment up” The Western Producer: http://www.producer.com/2013/10/ag-sector-interest-sends-university-enrolment-up/
Kemptville Campus http://www.kemptvillec.uoguelph.ca/
Campus d’Alfred https://www.uoguelph.ca/alfred/
Petition to Save Eastern Ontario Agricultural Campuses http://www.steveclarkmpp.com/467/
North Grenville Community http://www.northgrenville.ca
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