Rumours of NorQuest College’s departure from Westlock are not true.
“NorQuest College remains very committed to Westlock. We are the community college for Westlock. We are not going anywhere and we are not shutting down.”
Those were the words of NorQuest regional stewardship senior manager Karen Link in response to rumblings that a recent disappearance of staff at the Westlock location inside the Heritage Building was a precursor to the college leaving town.
Instead, she said the staffing reduction was the result of an administrative staff person unexpectedly leaving the college. NorQuest has been working to fill that gap until a permanent replacement is found.
Notwithstanding that sudden departure and the loop it threw the college, “our plan is to continue to deliver programs and expand our program offerings going forward,” Link said.
However, she did say changes are coming that will affect staffing levels at the Westlock location, as well as at other locations within the NorQuest area.
In mid-May, NorQuest announced its Campus Alberta operating grant had been cut by 7.3 per cent, prompting a slew of cost-saving measures.
Among those changes is a revised course delivery method in Westlock. Instead of having a full complement of teaching and administrative staff on site to help students, Link said, the plan is to have support staff on site to provide assistance to students, who will primarily be learning via online methods.
“Students always have access to a very wide variety of online learning opportunities,” Link said. “They can either choose to do those from home or in some cases they can come in and work at the campus with support of our staff there.”
Despite the on-the-ground reductions, Link said the college intends to find ways to attract new students and allow courses to run even if enrolment at one location is too low.
An example of that is to combine classes from different locations into one large class by having some students work with the instructor face-to-face while others learn online at the same time.
“Rather than not delivering a class, we’re adjusting the delivery method to ensure that we can continue to meet their needs and to work within our financial capacity to do so,” Link said.
