Improving Access to Services for Students and Employees

—From the desks of Lareena Rilkoff, Vice-President, College Services, and Taya Whitehead, Vice-President, Education & Students

Over the last few years, Selkirk College has been taking a closer look at how we can maximize the potential of our physical spaces. And with our new strategic plan and its focus on sustainability, we’ve accelerated some of that thinking.

In 2023, we commissioned the Selkirk College Space Utilization Study from Cresa, a third-party consultant. We’re now following through on some of its recommendations to help us use our space more efficiently. Selkirk College has a big physical footprint for a college of its size. By consolidating some resources into fewer locations, we can improve access to services for students and employees. The resulting cost savings will also help us offset some of the decline in international enrolment revenues.

As some of you may know, the college is moving all the programs operating out of the Applied Research & Innovation Centre (ARIC) building at the Castlegar airport to the Castlegar and Tenth Street campuses. This includes the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) programs and the Selkirk Innovates team. The move will bring our GIS programs together with other programs from our School of Environment & Geomatics, providing new opportunities for collaboration, networking and cross-pollination. It also provides students and staff from ARIC with easier access to services and increases the vibrancy of the other campuses.

This move should be completed over the summer of 2025. In the meantime, College Services teams are working to limit any disruptions to ARIC programs, students and employees.

On the student housing front, last year, Selkirk College submitted a business case for additional housing near the Trail Campus. Although our case wasn’t approved, we're taking this opportunity to consider the impact of lower overall enrolment levels on our housing needs. This will help us make informed decisions about submitting a new business case with revised housing needs data from our region.

The Executive Leadership Team continues to explore other options for space efficiencies, so please keep an eye on future employee communications for more updates. As always, we encourage you to reach out to your supervisor or Leadership Team member with any questions, comments or suggestions.