What will the College of New Caledonia (CNC) look like in the next 50 years? How will it be different? How will it stay the same?
Those are the questions the Prince George post-secondary wants you to answer!
The school has launched #CNCNext50, a broad consultation process, that it'll use to develop its strategic plan.
CNC - The Next 50 Years seeks viewpoints and potential opportunities, focusing on the first five years from 2021 to 2026 and then moving more broadly to the next 50 years.
“North-central B.C. and the world face a challenging time. While we deal with the immediate realities of COVID-19 we must also look to the future and that is what today is all about,” says CNC President Dr. Dennis Johnson.
“Now is the time to look at the future of the region and CNC’s role within it. We know CNC will continue to serve people, communities and the economy but we want to better define our role in fostering new educational opportunities in the next 50 years.”
The consultation process includes an online public survey, and later into the fall may include focus groups and town halls.
Last year, CNC celebrated its 50th anniversary when the college first opened in 1969 and had just 253 registered students during its first semester.
“For more than half a century CNC has made a difference in the lives of people in north-central British Columbia,” says Johnson.
“Since CNC opened more than 100,000 graduates have benefited from certificate and diploma programs, career-ready skills training, upgrading courses and a path to degrees through university transfer.”
Now, the college is looking into the future to see where the next 50 years will lead.
“We are going to let the community do the talking,” says Johnson, noting the consultation process will gather feedback using broad open-ended questions about the college’s future.
“Within the bounds of what our mandate is we could see quite a bit of shift depending on what the community tells us.”
Because of COVID-19, the consultation process has moved largely online through the survey. Johnson says the process has also been delayed a few months, as CNC had hoped to be in the middle of conducting focus groups and town halls by this point.
“Now that we are starting a little later we are still going to do broad consolation but technologically enabled,” he said.
“The survey is an important piece, but we are still planning on doing one-on-one interviews with key community leaders, focus groups, town halls, and our consultants are guiding the methodology in how to best get those voices.”
The survey and consultation steps are also seeking feedback from anyone in the community. It is an anonymous survey and you don’t have to be a CNC student or alumni to participate.
“You might have gone to CNC years ago or have a relative or friend that did. If you have opinions share them — it’s a public and wide-open survey,” says Johnson.
The survey will run until Sept. 14 and print copies are available upon request.
Johnson says CNC hopes to have results compiled by Spring 2021.
