Selkirk College Annual Report 08-09

On behalf of the Board of Governors and Selkirk College, it is our pleasure to present the 08/09 Annual Report Highlights.

Increased Enrolment & Course Development

• We enjoyed our highest enrolment numbers ever with 2535 full-time equivalent students.
• We have increased the delivery of online courses by over 15%, providing students with even more learning choices.

A Healthier Fiscal Position

• We were able to eliminate the previous year’s deficit and find ourselves in a healthier fiscal position going into 2009-10.
• We successfully acquired federal and provincial Knowledge Infrastructure Funding for a $1.9M HVAC renovation at the Castlegar Campus, in addition to Ministry and other monies to upgrade the boilers at the Silver King Campus in Nelson.

Focus on Environmental Sustainability

• The Environmental Sustainability Committee was successful at implementing Power-Down and Recycling projects. An Environmental Benchmark Study was completed by School of Renewable Resources Instructor, Derek Marcoux.

Celebration of Achievements

• We have celebrated together: recognizing twenty years of Contemporary Music & Technology; Distinguished Educator Dr. Peter Wood; and Honorary Diploma recipients Dr. Jack Colbert and Michael Chapman.

Success with Selkirk International

• We have made progress on the international education front with our first students graduating from Nanjing Technical Institute (China), a project that has involved several of our faculty as well as graduates from our TESOL program; with our Georgia, Eastern Europe project making great strides despite a very difficult political landscape; and with international students continuing to choose Selkirk for their studies.

Increased Donor Support

• Despite the drastic downturns in the economy, donations for scholarships and bursaries have increased by over 50%. This is largely due to the funding provided by the Southern Interior Development Trust (SIDIT) fund. The SIDIT donation is the single largest donation for student awards in the history of Selkirk College.

Development of Housing Information

• Our Regional Innovation Chair, George Penfold, has focused on the development of housing information for the Columbia Basin and Boundary regions, utilizing two sources of data - the 2006 Census, and the 2001 and 2008 BC Assessment rolls.  With the help of the BC Real Estate Foundation, an inventory of Social Housing Resources has also been developed.  All reports and data bases and a sample of related presentations are available at selkirk.ca/research/ric/housing-resources/.

If you have any questions about the 08/09 Annual Report Highlights, please contact the Director of Communications & Development, Barry Auliffe at 250.505.1384.