Fleming College’s June 26th Board of Governors meeting saw three deputations advocate for the reversal of the 29 suspended programs announced in April of this year. The delegates, who are all graduates of recently suspended programs, spoke about the impact the program suspensions will have on the community, and called for more transparency around this decision. 

In the April 24th announcement, Fleming College President Maureen Adamson cited the loss of educational private partnerships and the federal cap on international student enrolment as the reasoning behind the “difficult, but necessary, evidence-based” decision to suspend the programs.

The first delegate of the Board of Governors meeting was Chris North, a member of Fleming College’s Geographic Information System (GIS) Program Advisory Committee (PAC). He shared that in addition to his role on PAC, he is also a proud Fleming graduate who participated in student council, empathizing with the board about “the amount of pressure everyone around the table is under right now.” 

North called the GIS program Fleming’s “best kept secret”, stating that graduates from this program play a crucial role in a functioning society with their work in fields such as emergency response, climate change, urban planning, housing development, and working with Indigenous and First Nation communities.

“GIS is everywhere,” he said. “The impact of losing these really excellent grads won’t just be felt in this industry, it will be felt everywhere in Canada.”

Losing the talent that comes with suspending this program is a fear for North, as he told the board that “every other industry” will feel the impact of this loss. Combating existential problems like climate change and the housing crisis won’t be easy without “the quality of [Fleming] graduates,” he said. 

Jamie Molloy of Iron Equipment Ltd. who addressed the City of Kawartha Lakes Council in May and earlier this week spoke at a Peterborough City Council meeting to call for Federal and provincial support following the suspensions, spoke again to the board about his experience as a graduate from the Heavy Equipment Technicians Program.

“25 years ago I graduated from one of the best known heavy technicians programs in the province,” he said, emphasizing again the immense impact this suspension will have on the community. “I cannot express enough not only how this affects the graduates, but the families and businesses that have developed in the area.”

Molloy fears the return on investment was not considered when making these cuts. Stating that he understands the revenue for this specific course may “not have been the best”, but the long-term impact these graduates have on the agriculture economy, waste water development, and stone quarries, to name a few, are irreplaceable. 

Molloy also acknowledged one of Adamson’s reasons for the course suspensions being the cap on incoming international students in Canada, but shared that the heavy technicians program does not have “a significant percentage of international students.”

On Wednesday, Adamson told Global News that while this is true, Fleming has been depending on international student enrollment growth and tuition to subsidize the delivery of many of these programs.

In his closing statement, Molloy stated he is “here to speak loud and to find a resolution to this issue.” 

The final delegation was Chris White, a representative of SOLIDWORKS User Group Network (SWUGN) and a graduate of the Mechatronics Program.

White spoke on the importance of community impact and advocated for the reversal of the suspended programs, urging the board to “think of the next generation” that will be impacted by the suspensions.

He cited his ten-year-old daughter as a future student and shared his fears that these suspensions might “ruin her chances of an engineering education.”

“I am here to help support you guys, we would do anything to foster the next generation,” he concluded. 

The board had no questions or comments for any of the delegates who spoke on Wednesday. 

After the meeting, Molloy and North spoke to Arthur about their concerns moving forward, expressing their frustrations over lack of transparency surrounding the suspensions in addition to the irony felt in Fleming's drafted strategic plan which was shared during the meeting.

In conversation around the recent vote from the City of Peterborough and City of Kawartha Lakes calling for the reversal of the suspensions, North shared that it feels like everyone is “starting to really understand the situation.”

However, he also shared the lack of conversation with the board after the delegations felt odd, considering the board’s plan to foster more consultation with the community as a goal in the 2024-2029 strategic plan.

“There’s been little feedback from the board in regards to this…the opportunity to speak today was nice, but what a great opportunity for the board to ask us questions, and how unfortunate it was to have people representing the industry and for them to not ask us a single question,” he said.

Molloy shared a similar sentiment, stating that “without them saying anything, it speaks volumes.”

The two delegates also raised concerns over the legitimacy of the reasons behind the suspensions, calling for more transparency behind this decision.

“I found out like everybody,” North said. “I got an email, and I would have hoped that if there were financial challenges within some of these programs, go to your PAC early on but that didn’t happen. We were caught off guard with the timing of it.”

He also shared that in the past two years, the GIS program underwent “complete revamping” with ministry approval to build two new streams which are now suspended. 

“I was told there was already 40 students registered for it, so you’re kind of left scratching your head…there was not a lot of transparency,” he said.

North stated again that he understands the revenue problems that come with the cap on international enrolment, but shared that problems like these should have been addressed with the industry first to find a solution together, rather than suspending them with no consultation within the cut programs. 

North acknowledged that his role on the GIS PAC is not to “tell the college how to run their business”,  and he recognizes the college is under “no obligation to ask us about the program cuts” but stated that PAC is here to help in challenges like these that affect graduates. 

Molloy agreed with North, sharing that this was an opportunity for the college to approach the industry first before making this decision. 

“The more I get involved, the more I get riled up and upset at what’s going on,” he said. “But a lot of that could be alleviated with a little bit of information from the board to understand why they made the decision. That transparency would be awesome.”