‘The government is trying to make AU responsible for rural economic development. But that’s not AU’s job, it’s higher education, and the school is world renowned for that.’
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Athabasca University’s sacked chairman of the board says the school is already taking a hit from aggressive government moves to locate more staff in the small town of Athabasca, north of Edmonton.
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“We are finding enrollment is declining, faculty members are now unwilling to re-sign contracts, new faculty are unwilling to come,” says Calgary business executive Nancy Laird, speaking publicly for the first time since. who was fired on May 25.
Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides wants up to 500 more employees to live in the city of Athabasca, which has a population of less than 3,000.
“The staff just won’t move in there,” Laird said in an interview. “Last time I checked there were less than 50 property listings in Athabasca. Where would they live?
The shortage of highly qualified professors and teachers “is a global trend, but what is happening to Athabasca is accelerating that trend.”
Because of the public controversy, he adds, “students seem to be losing confidence in Athabasca U. They can’t afford to put money into a course and then wonder who’s going to teach it. They’re taking a pass this semester.
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This is not just a local problem in northern Alberta. It touches on both government performance, or lack thereof, and educational opportunities for the entire province.
Athabasca U is an online degree-granting school with 40,000 people taking courses. It costs the government less than $50 million a year to operate, compared to more than $600 million for the U of C and nearly $1 billion for the U of A.
The great physical universities are different animals, of course. But AU is by far the best educational offering in Alberta for taxpayers and students alike, precisely because it runs almost entirely online with no particular need for an expensive central location.
Prime Minister Jason Kenney and Nicolaides attended a public meeting in the city on March 24. There were no school executives there, but the members got a recording later.
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Laird then sent Nicolaides a letter that said “we see that personal attacks were made. . . We believe that the integrity of AU’s governance was undermined by the Government of Alberta to the extent that it affects our ability to fulfill our educational mandate, as well as effectively address labor negotiations with our union.”
Nicolaides fired Laird by cabinet order and replaced her with Kenney loyalist Byron Nelson, who ran unsuccessfully against the minister for the Calgary-Bow UCP nomination in 2018.
It is highly noted that the Athabasca meeting occurred in the period when Kenney activists were trying to win votes for their leadership review.
Prior to that meeting, Laird says, Nicolaides was “thrilled” with the direction of AU, including the hiring of renowned online learning expert Dr. Peter Scott as president.
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“I received high praise from the minister, and then everything changed, as if this had never happened. I still can’t draw a rational line of sight between where we were then and where we are now.”
Nicolaides threatens to cut off the school’s funding of about $3.4 million a month if AU doesn’t align with the plan to bolster city employment.
He appears to be moderating a bit, perhaps hoping for a compromise, but has not backed off from the funding cut.
Imposing a cut would be the stupidest thing a minister has done in the long annals of tinkering with higher education, including layering new red tape imposed on all schools as they try to meet government targets.
More than 70 percent of the school’s funding comes from tuition fees, less than 25 percent from the government.
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However, 25 percent is important. Nancy Laird says that losing him would practically destroy the university.
Don’t imagine that the UCP is just trying to save money. If the forced march to Athabasca is attempted, there will inevitably be much more government spending on infrastructure, including housing.
Athabasca U is an “open” university, which means that anyone over the age of 16 can take a course, regardless of their educational level.
For more than 40 years, thousands of Albertans who couldn’t get into a traditional school improved their lives, got better jobs and earned respected degrees.
In the early days, professors taught remote classes by phone and mail, but they also brought higher education to First Nations in Alberta with classes on reservations. Courses were held on BC islands and even on fishing boats.
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In the early 1980s, the Lougheed PC government decreed that the school should be based in Athabasca. Many teachers refused to move then.
Since then, there has been an uneasy relationship with the townspeople who are understandably proud and touchy. In recent years, the number of staff on site has decreased to less than 300.
Laird suggests that existing facilities be repurposed to better help the local economy, perhaps with a major research facility. That would leave AU free to become more decentralized and almost completely virtual.
“The government is trying to make AU responsible for rural economic development,” he says. “But that’s not AU’s job, it’s higher education, and the school is world renowned for that.
“We have expressed our willingness to work with the minister for rural development, Nate Horner, to provide whatever support we can within our education mandate.”
As for Nicolaides’ demand that executives be located in the city, Laird says, “It’s not an insult to Athabasca or its people to say they won’t go. The talent market is so narrow that it’s very difficult for a small town, in Alberta or anywhere else, to attract those people.”
Nicolaides may be trying to nail down his goals before a new prime minister arrives after the October 6 leadership vote. Whether he will be around to help them is another story.
Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald.
Twitter: @DonBraid
