Dr. Peter Nunoda, RDC President (Photo: RDC)

By Josh Hall

"confident we’re going to proceed"

RDC navigating choppy waters with eyes still on university status

Jun 22, 2020 | 4:10 PM

The president of Red Deer College says the changing landscape amid COVID-19 is proving difficult to traverse, but they are doing their best.

Dr. Peter Nunoda confirmed Monday there have so far been 146 people who’ve lost their jobs at RDC, and they’re facing a $5.3 million funding cut by the province.

However, the full extent of the pandemic’s impacts won’t be known for another several weeks.

“What we do know is that our university status is delayed by the system review,” Nunoda said during a Zoom media conference on Monday.

When asked if becoming Red Deer University has turned into a matter of ‘if’ rather than ‘when,’ Nunoda said he doesn’t believe so.

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“We’re on the same kind of footing as we were. It’s just that as the government takes a look at post-secondary in the entire province, we’re in a space with some uncertainty. I’m still confident we’re going to proceed ahead, [and] this is just a temporary delay.”

The UCP government is currently reviewing the post-secondary system as it looks to assess the viability of schools, something Nunoda anticipates being consulted on later this summer.

Nunoda notes that university status isn’t directly correlated with being able to grant degrees, and that starting in Sept. 2021, RDC will indeed begin offering a Bachelor of Science.

There are also no plans to suspend or cut more programs after the college made the “difficult decision” this spring to axe a handful of them, such as the Instrumentation Engineering Technology Diploma, as well as the Acting and Live Entertainment program. The latter, Nunoda noted previously, was due to low enrolment, not COVID-19.

Nunoda says RDC is expecting a 10 per cent drop in domestic student enrollment this fall as the college goes with online-only classes. They also won’t be seeing any international students where as RDC had 219 last year.

Certain programs like nursing will see students on campus for occasional labs, as well as for trades and apprenticeship students.

“First and foremost is health and safety,” Nunoda explained. “We’re going to do this gradually.”

The college is waiting to find out how hard it will be hit in the pocketbook with respect to ancillary services. This includes the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre, which will remain closed for the foreseeable future.

As for student-athletes, the ACAC season has been postponed until January, but that won’t affect students who are attending the school on scholarship. An average of 150 student-athletes have received athletic scholarships over the last five years.

Then there’s the summer, which the president says will include small-scale face-to-face programming and opportunities on campus.

“We’re using those as trial runs to see what more face-to-face would look like for us,” Nunoda said. “Our greatest challenge is congestion. You have to control spacing as students enter and exit, and there are all kinds of logistics that we’ve never imagined.”

Lastly, Nunoda addressed a report by the CBC this week that 14 students at the University of Calgary have been accused of academic misconduct for allegedly sharing tutorial answers in an online chatroom.

“There are two methods by which instructors can verify academic integrity. If they assign a take-home exam, they can verify plagiarism through online tools that we have. In a timed normal exam environment, we have a lockdown browser which allows us to monitor by video where they’re writing their exam,” Nunoda explained.

“Students are pretty creative, but we are very vigilant around academic integrity, so I’m really confident the results students are achieving are well-deserved and well-earned.”