Brittany Lausen, outgoing president, Students' Association of Red Deer College. (Supplied)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

pen at the ready for the minister

RDC students fed up with government’s delay in granting degrees

Mar 21, 2021 | 9:47 AM

Students at Red Deer College are done with the provincial government’s delays in approving degrees.

Next Wednesday, March 24, led by the Students’ Association, there will be a ‘Collective Day of Action’ from 11-2 where students will hold a demonstration to rally support and encourage government to make a decision so that RDC can offer certain degrees starting in fall 2021.

Red Deer College currently has five degrees submitted to the province, all since 2018 when the college began its university transition.

They include a Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Science Psychology, Bachelor of Arts Psychology, Bachelor of Business Administration, and Bachelor of Science Biology.

RDC has been asking the province for degree-granting status for more than 30 years, which SA President Brittany Lausen emphasizes is long enough.

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She adds that this isn’t an issue just RDC should be concerned about, but rather all central Albertans.

“Students are being displaced and having to move out of the region to complete schooling, and students want to stay here. Advanced Education Minister [Demetrios] Nicolaides has indicated to me on more than one occasion, that yes, there is a process degrees go through before they are recommended to the minister for approval,” Lausen says.

“However, he has also told me that it ultimately lands on his desk to grant Red Deer College degrees. Minister Nicolaides can grant to RDC degrees without renaming the institution. We do not need to be a university or a polytechnic to have degrees. If the Minister needs a pen, the students of Red Deer College can easily get him a pen.”

Lausen explains that if the government does not grant RDC its BSc Psych or BA Psych, there would be 167 psychology students displaced with nowhere to go because collaborative degrees RDC had with the University of Calgary were cancelled in late 2019.

“RDC currently has a Middle Years collaborative program with the University of Alberta. However, it only has room for 40 students, and it is not guaranteed those seats will be filled by current RDC students. Students can be admitted from anywhere into that program,” says Lausen.

“This program consistently has a waitlist of more than 100 students. If RDC students do not gain admittance into the 40-spot Middle year program, then students move away to the city to complete their degree, and they often stay in the (bigger) city to establish their lives, which is a brain drain on central Alberta.”

Lausen believes if there is a reason the government is making RDC wait, it must be transparent about why.

“If there is no reason, then they need to grant them,” she remarks. “Red Deer has waited for a new hospital as well and we haven’t gotten that either. It’s time that government starts paying attention and caring about the people in central Alberta.”

Residents are encouraged to join students this Wednesday for the demonstration at the college. More information is in a Facebook group called ‘RDC Needs Degrees!’

According to RDC’s website, the institution currently offers two applied arts bachelor degrees, one in animation and visual effects and another for film, theatre and live entertainment

Last April, RDC announced the Acting and Live Entertainment majors within the Bachelor of Applied Arts in Film, Theatre and Live Entertainment, was being suspended due to enrolment being less than half of what it needs to remain sustainable.

RDC administration declined comment on this story until they could hear more directly from students this coming week.