Approximately 40 students in Camosun’s Applied Communication Program (ACP) marched to Camosun College president Kathryn Laurin’s office on the afternoon of April 11. The students were attempting to get answers as to why ACP has been suspended and wanted to hand deliver letters about ACP and a personal invite to Laurin.
“We went down to present letters and to invite her to [ACP graduation ceremony] Playback on Friday,” says first-year ACP student Megan Gibson, “to show her what exactly she’s suspending and what the college will be missing out if they lose ACP.”
According to Gibson, Laurin thanked the students for coming. The students wanted answers; they left with a meeting scheduled for Friday, April 13 to talk further.
“Why is this program being cut?” says Gibson. “Are we going to, in the future, have a communications program in the college? We also want to talk about the fact that the radio station is being cut.”
Joan Yates, Camosun executive director, communications and advancement, says the college representatives were very impressed with how the students handled themselves.
“The students were incredibly respectful,” says Yates. “They presented their position very clearly. They presented their perspective quite well and professionally.”
As to why the college staff scheduled a meeting for later instead of answering the questions when the students showed up at Laurin’s office, Yates says that part of the reason was so that any other students who want to be involved have time to be informed.
“It needs to be more of a meeting as opposed to being just sprung upon, for both the students and administration,” she says. “We wanted students to be aware that the intention was if folks weren’t there they wouldn’t miss out on something important.”
Yates says that Laurin—who had postponed other meetings to meet with the students today—has taken the letters with her to read and is taking this all very seriously.
As for the invite to Playback, Yates says that Laurin already has other commitments that night and did not receive an invitation until last week. Boraas, however, will be attending, according to Yates.
Meanwhile, ACP students have “occupied” the Young building third-floor studios of CKMO radio, which will be cut as part of Camosun’s 2012-13 budget. The occupation—which has students playing their own choice of music and talking about the suspension of ACP and the cutting of the station—will be happening until Sunday night.
Is CKMO 900 willing to release some statistics on the number of listeners tuning in at peak hours? Also, how much student money per year is being used to keep the station running?