HUB OF LEARNING 1: Sustainability Commission presents Hub of Learning concept to Royal Roads Masters students
By Arlen MacLaine
An invitation from Royal Roads University facilitated a recent trip to the coast that saw Sustainability Commission Chair Terry Miller and Innovative Education Task Force Chair Fletcher Quince present the concept of Rossland as a ‘Hub of Learning’ to the university’s students as part of a ‘leadership challenge’. The challenge, was how would you envision Rossland being created as a hub of learning? Thirty learners, from 3 different Masters programs split into 5 groups, took part and produced 5 different proposals.
The proposals ranged anywhere from Rossland being a full-fledged post-secondary institution for Royal Roads, as a satellite campus, down to capitalizing on our strengths, like doing back country workshops, ski and bike training, and using the outdoors as a classroom as well as the community as a classroom. Proposals also incorporated the idea of a Sustainability Commission as a unique entity in a community in the sense that, for community sustainability, it is already structured, has been developed, and is cutting edge in terms of what it offers to this community, and can act as a model for other communities.
“It was very well received,” said Quince. “People really enjoyed the concept, and thought it was a great option for economic growth and sustainability at the community level. Having a low impact economic driver like education, where people come here as destination learners and take a one or two week program, or they stay for a season and go to school, they can see it as being a very valuable thing. The level of post-secondary educated individuals in the community already makes it fertile ground for an extension of that into a concept associated with post-secondary education.”
The next step is for the taskforce to meet and hammer out details and create concrete action plans to move forward on some of these ideas. The taskforce also wants to communicate with Selkirk College and become involved in creating learning opportunities up here as well. During a brief presentation to Council about the trip, Terry Miller thanked Council for their contribution, but also highlighted some issues the Sustainability Commission continues to face.
“We continue to work on these programs, but we’re struggling to have two cents to rub together,” Miller said. “We’re trying to do good work, but we’re finding it difficult to secure the resources and backing to keep moving things forward.”
As for the Innovative Education Task Force,“The purpose of the taskforce is to facilitate educational opportunities in the community,” said Quince. “So, if someone wants to run a program, we’d offer the support services to help facilitate that. We’ll build the engine, that supports the endeavor, rather than say we’re going to do this kind of program. The taskforce is not dedicated to run one specific kind of program.”
