Nipissing's planned closing of its Muskoka campus has students and community leaders from Bracebridge upset.
The university has announced it will be completely withdrawing from the area this summer and its assets sold off.
See story: Nipissing suspends all involvement in Muskoka
And they're claiming they never got the chance to make their case before Nipissing's Board of Governors.
In a news release today, the group says at the February 4, board meeting of an advocacy group composed of students, faculty, and community members from the local chapter of the Canadian Federation of University Women, were denied the opportunity to speak in support of a motion to review the decision to close the Bracebridge campus.
Ryan Coyne is a student at the Bracebridge campus.
“It was quite shocking to me that the university, President Mike DeGagne, would try to prevent the Board from listening to the voices of its primary constituents, the students, let alone donors and tax payers. According to Nipissing University’s Board of Governors by-laws, the agenda of Board meetings must include an allotted space for presentations. Despite this, the Board failed to allow the Bracebridge advocates the chance to be heard."
DeGagne sees it differently.
"We don't have an venue for public presentations. You can imagine all the public contact our university has, we would do nothing but public presentations. We don't meet that often, five times a year. So we did explain to the student group that contacted us from Muskoka, we said 'board meetings are public meetings and you can certainly attend in person. We would not recommend driving all the way from Muskoka because we are not going to reconsider our decision'.
"They were very good about understanding that they would not be allowed to speak and there was an appeal to the board to say 'can we speak' and we said 'no we're going to hold quite firm to the policy on this."
This meeting was of particular consequence to the future of the Muskoka says the students news release.
"There has been mounting evidence that highlights the inadequate financial information used in the closure decision made by the Board in June 2015. Despite the efforts of faculty Board members to express their concern about the accuracy of the financial information provided to the Board to justify the June 2015 decision, the motion to establish a more thorough financial and academic analysis of the viability of the Muskoka Campus failed!
"Denial of the group’s opportunity to speak at the Board meeting, along with the failures in transparent management that have characterized the group’s recent dealing with the Board, raise significant flags about the administration’s ability to manage a public institution."
The group says it will be pursuing further action to prevent the closure. Meanwhile, the Nipissing University Student Union (NUSU) is expressing sympathy and support for students at the Muskoka Campus in light of the announcement of the campus closure in June 2016.
"We definitely understand the distress that this has caused to not only the staff, faculty and students of the campus, but also to the Bracebridge community," said Ruth Cortez-Alvarez, Vice-President Satellite of the Student Union. "We have been fortunate to live in such a beautiful place and we thank our neighbours for their hospitality and kindness to the students over the past nineteen years."
"Everyone at the North Bay Campus is cognizant of the challenges we will face moving forward. We will do everything we can to accommodate students in this time of transition," stated Madison Byblow, Vice-President External.
NUSU encourages students, with questions or concerns, to contact Dr. Rick Vanderlee, Dean of the Muskoka Campus at [email protected] or Ruth Cortez-Alvarez, VP Satellite for NUSU at [email protected].
See the entire speech by Ryan Coyne intended for the Nipissing University Board of Governors below:
Governors of the Board,
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak. I realize that the discussion around the stated closure of the Muskoka campus has been at times, contentious. It is no doubt difficult for you to have had to make such a decision. It is however in these difficult times that decisions must be made with the utmost care, and actions considered with the highest scrutiny to ensure the best outcome.
The planned closure and sale of the Muskoka campus is a difficult decision. I trust that you think you made the right decision, that it was a tough, but necessary one. I can appreciate that you might think our position is foolish, but no decision-making body is infallible. Sometimes it takes a community to be able to see the entire picture. So I must respectfully, but very strongly disagree with the decision that has been made by this Board. There is too much at stake not only for the community of Bracebridge, but the University as a whole, not to challenge what I increasingly see as a rash and insufficiently researched decision. There are certainly a lot of variables to consider in a situation of this magnitude; it only makes sense to ensure that we have explored all possibilities before reaching such a final conclusion.
I am not here as a bleeding heart, pleading for something I wish would change. I am here because I think you made an uninformed business decision for the University. And I, as a student, am the university, WE are the university. This is a public institution and its management should therefore operate in a transparent fashion. As Governors of the Board, it is incumbent upon you to make decisions that will best serve the university into the future. Once lost, the Muskoka campus will not be reopened under the Nipissing banner. This is an opportunity that is too valuable to throw away in such a misguided and unrealistic attempt to save money. The recent Price Waterhouse Cooper audit of the school has raised serious doubts in my mind about the financial management of this school, which therefore casts doubt on the decisions made to sell our most valuable assets.
And so, we might ask, what has prevented the Muskoka campus from truly thriving? The promise of increased programming has never materialized. In fact, programming that was developed in Muskoka was stripped away and yet is now offered in North Bay. Doesn’t the fact that the campus had no Dean until two years ago suggest a lack of stewardship? Has the Board really tried to make Muskoka work? Shouldn’t there be an audit of all stakeholders to determine exactly how it is that we have arrived in the position we are in? It is your responsibility as members of the Board to ensure that this kind of careful assessment has taken place. Has it? Or has the decision been passed down to the Governors and treated like a rubber-stamp issue? Can each of you claim that you have carefully researched and considered the evidence for a closure? Or did you trust that the administration had done the research, and you did not have to. I am here to ask you: Are you really sure? Has this Board of Governors performed its due diligence on this matter? Are you as individuals upholding your duty that is dictated to you in the very constitution of this university? Given the amount of contrary evidence, can you still assert that you are making the best decision for Nipissing University?
Let me leave you with a quote from the anthropologist Margaret Mead. She suggests that we should “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” I love this quote. I suggest that you, the governors of the Board, need to be the “small group of thoughtful, committed citizens” to create positive, meaningful change. Indeed, it’s the only thing that will save our campus.
Thank you for your time
