With Lethbridge College celebrating its 50th birthday this year, now more than ever its
focus is on improving services to students.
For Steven Dyck, the rising cost of education and the need for improvements to the Buchanan Library are two areas of greatest concern.
“We have to look at ways at creating affordability as well as giving students the necessary tools to be successful,” says Steven, Lethbridge College’s executive director, advancement.
The College has a goal to raise $500,000 to generate and sustain 50 additional $1,000 scholarships as one way of addressing the affordability question. Leading the charge is the Alumni Association, which has given the scholarship fund a kick-start with a $25,000 “challenge gift.” The College Foundation has accepted that challenge and matched it. It’s a good start, and though there is still a long way to go to reach the target, Steven remains undaunted.
“A $1,000 scholarship can mean the difference between a student successfully completing a program and dropping out,” says Steven.
To illustrate the point he notes a married student was preparing to feed his family by hunting the geese on Henderson Lake; a scholarship enabled him to concentrate on his studies rather than wildfowling.
The change away from individual endowments to a general scholarship fund reflects the increased costs of dealing with individual awards and helps donors keep in closer contact with the realities of modern education. A small endowment that produced scholarships of $250 was fine in earlier years, says Steven, but can’t keep pace with inflation.
Donors looking for an avenue to give to the College other than through scholarships can lend their support to projects that benefit the entire student body. The Buchanan Library, for instance, is at the centre of the college in more ways than one.
College librarian Fiona Dyer admits heavy use on the library is making it increasingly difficult to serve students to the level they require. Changing methods of instruction, including an increase in the use of group work, is leading to increased pressure on the facility. Gone is the idea of having students produce their own work in individual endeavour. Now, groups, consisting of several learners, require the use of small rooms to provide a more relaxed, free-flow sharing of ideas.
However, with the library already under encroachment from other departments within the college, the pressure is on to provide students with what they need.
“We’ve had student focus groups which tell us that they want,” says Fiona.
The students’ priority is a welcoming, quiet place to study, a place where they can spread out and chill out. College leadership recognizes the value of the library as a learning centre has been compromised to an extent and is keen to see the situation rectified. A refurbishment, at about $10 million, would be the first since the library was built in 1984, and would add 1,410 square metres on a second floor.
With funding in place, there won’t be an overnight solution to the library’s problems.
“You’re looking at about two years to completion after we’ve got the money,” says Irwin Olfert, the College’s director of physical facilities. The first six months would be devoted to planning and design with another 18 months required for construction. By such time, pressure on the library is likely to have increased further. Irwin admits constructing a second floor would cause some disruption, but that the building was originally constructed to allow for upward expansion.
The Buchanan Library also houses the Buchanan Bequest. This collection of nearly 50 paintings, including several landscapes by members of the Group of Seven, has always been stored in a secure vault in the library for protection. Unfortunately, that renders it largely inaccessible for display for all to appreciate. A larger library would allow the collection to be appropriately displayed.
