
The Okanagan College Students' Union is sounding the alarm about several Salmon Arm campus classes that were either consolidated or moved from in-person to online at the last minute — changes the college says were necessary due to low enrolment.
“They didn't contact students — students arrived to their classes and were told either with a letter on the door saying your class isn't happening, or it's been moved to online,” said Lindsey Loftus, students' union organizer for the college's Salmon Arm campus.
The adult basic education program offers students the chance to upgrade or complete high school courses. Many students enrolled in the courses at the Salmon Arm campus of Okanagan College were surprised when they arrived at their first class of the semester only to discover the change of plans.
“I have a student in mind who has worked an entire year to save money so they could afford childcare, so they could be in class only to find out their classes aren't happening,” Loftus said. “It's a huge disruption to their life.”
Loftus said these disruptions are extra hard on students taking adult basic education classes because many of them have faced discrimination and systemic barriers in their education already.
Loftus said the Salmon Arm campus will feel the effects of the move.
“The regional campuses, we depend on those enrolments to feed our other programs. So when we don't have that enrolment, all of our other programs suffer," she said.
“For the students, if they don't have the opportunity to upgrade, then they don't have the opportunity to go into nursing or go into trades or do their first year here and move on to something bigger and better and greater for themselves.”
Demand for classes 'quite low'
An Okanagan College spokesperson said low enrolment caused officials to consolidate classes and move online instead of cancelling the courses outright.
“What happened was some of them where the demand for the program was quite low," Kevin Parnell, the college's associate director of college relations, told Castanet.
"Instead of cancelling them, we combined them into offerings that would include ... upper level and lower level."
Parnell said while the new combined courses are being offered online, they are also being offered in person at the Salmon Arm campus.
“Except in one situation with one specific course in Salmon Arm, which was chemistry 11, there was only one person enrolled so that program did go online,” he explained.
“If there are low registrations, like for instance only one student enrolled in chemistry 11, then the decision is how do we continue to support those students and offer the course, as opposed to just cancelling it.”
Loftus said the students' union is still fighting against courses being consolidated or moved to online.
She has started a petition that received 41 signatures in its first day — approximately one third of the student body of the Salmon Arm campus. The students' union is also planning to reach out to local leaders and the school district to gauge support.