A group of citizens has formed a loose coalition to petition the provincial government to have more executive positions from Athabasca University live in the area instead of urban centres like Edmonton or Calgary.
The concerned businesspeople, service groups and regular citizens want to encourage Athabascans to do a letter writing campaign to the Premier, their MLA, and to the Minister of Advanced Education to make the UCP aware and remind them there was a mandate about rural sustainability under former Premier Peter Lougheed.
While AU can claim there are more overall positions, fewer of those positions are being held in Athabasca which has an impact on the area according to Lionel Cherniwchan.
“You buy your groceries here, you go to church here, you send your kids to school here, you use our pool. That's what makes the community.”
“There was a bond with the employees and the university and the community. We were one. We don't have that anymore,” he commented.
“I go back right back at the beginning of the university, we had good people here, these good people built the university to what it is today,” Cherniwchan said. “They lived here, and they worked here.”
AU was brought to Athabasca as part of Lougheed’s rural sustainability initiative that saw Barrhead get the Alberta Distance Learning Centre or Stettler get the Lottery Commission, as two examples. It was a way to bring different pieces of industry, education or government to rural Alberta and ignite rural growth.
You can write to Premier Jason Kenney at:
Legislature Office
307 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB
Canada T5K 2B6
Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken:
B-4705 - 49 Avenue
Athabasca, AB
Canada T9S 0B5
Minister of Advance Education. Honourable Demetrios Nicolaides:
Legislature Office
403 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB
Canada T5K 2B6
While you are encouraged to use your own thoughts and opinions, a sample letter is provided below:
(Your address)
(Recipients address)
(Date)
Dear Minister/Honourable (Change to match who you are writing to.)
Athabasca University has been located in the Town of Athabasca since 1984. During these past 35 years we both have grown. We have had a symbiotic relationship with the University providing job opportunities for our local residents and bringing in professional and technical staff who have contributed to our community in many ways; they made our small town so much better. Our schools educated their children; we provided them with exceptional athletic and cultural opportunities and a quality of life that many appreciated.
Today we, as a community, are becoming concerned as we are seeing what we believe to be a gradual erosion of the University’s employment placements in Athabasca and the subsequent impact on our community and the continued viability of Athabasca as “the Home of Athabasca University”.
Athabasca University employs approximately 1100 staff of whom 400 work in Athabasca. AU has seen a good deal of staff turnover since a series of layoffs in 2013. Subsequent employee data show that new job hires are hired to outside of Athabasca while Edmonton and Calgary locations grow. Edmonton and Calgary are suffering under space constraints while Athabasca has empty office spaces. Approximately 100 at last count.
Professional Jobs
Since the 2013 layoffs professional replacement positions in Athabasca have decreased by approximately 8.5% per year. These jobs have been recruited to outside Athabasca.
Senior Management Jobs
In 2014 all members of the AU Executive Team were Athabasca residents. Now none of them are and their primary place of work is either Edmonton or Calgary.
What would we like?
A commitment from the Government that rural sustainability is important and keeping Athabasca University in Athabasca is important. We would like the Government to give some direction to the Board of Governors impressing on them the importance of keeping Athabasca University as a viable and preeminent educational institution headquartered in Athabasca.
AU has grown from an institution with 1,000 registrations to one with over 40 000. It is recognized worldwide and has the reputation of providing an exemplary level of programming and instruction. Satisfaction surveys done by graduates rank it as “exceptional”. AU is unique, successful, and growing. All this while in Athabasca. We can make it work if we want to. Let’s make the effort.
Thank you for your time and consideration
Respectfully,
(Your name here)
