The students of Selkirk College will have their day in the sun this week as they prepare to address the board of governors of Selkirk College about proposed budget cuts to the school.
Recently the B.C. government announced it was cutting its funding to post-secondary education by $70 million over the next three years, including over $1 million from Selkirk College.
Although the province claimed the money could be made up through administrative cuts, Selkirk administration announced March 5 that all of the second-year science courses, the entire Engineering and Philosophy programs, and the second years of the three two-year arts degrees offered at the Kootenay School of the Arts were being cut due to lack of funding.
Those cuts will seriously erode the ability of the school to attract students in the future, said Selkirk student Arielle Roberts, who is organizing the student appearance on Tuesday (4:30 p.m. in the Pit at the Castlegar Campus).
“I know that I would not have attended Selkirk if I had not been able to complete two years of study,” she said.
“We are asking them to repeal the cuts and work with us to secure Selkirk’s future.”
People can sign a petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/minister-of-advanced-education-reject-proposed-course-suspensions-address-funding-needs-of-rural-colleges, or join the Save Our Selkirk Facebook group to support the fight against the proposed cuts.