ATHABASCA - It has been a growing concern for the greater Athabasca region — the mass exodus of executive and staff who work for Athabasca University (AU), but are no longer required to live in the region.
Rotary Club of Athabasca members invited Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken to their weekly noon hour meeting April 7 where van Dijken spoke about his party’s time in government and some of the things of its accomplishments since being elected. When the floor opened for questions though, the focus was on AU.
Noel Major started by providing some background, noting even before the pandemic the buildings and campus were basically empty.
“We’ve talked about this amongst ourselves and among others in the community and the consensus is that really the demise of Athabasca University is the single most important issue in our community,” said Major.
He said former AU president Neil Fassina, who left his role at the end March for a new position in British Columbia, set the tone by not moving to Athabasca and allowed other executive and staff to follow suit.
“These were among the highest paying jobs in town, and these people are some of our best community builders,” said Major. “We’ve lost literally millions in payroll, our schools have lost hundreds of students, our main streets have lost customers, (and) the social capital we’ve lost by way of schools, churches, volunteers, sports, and arts organizations is immeasurable.”
Major added that since Fassina hasn’t been replaced yet, now is the perfect time for van Dijken to put some pressure on AU to return staff to the region.
“Some of us have some ideas, some have a bit of political capital that we’re willing to spend. So, your greatest possible contribution to this community would be to ensure that the heart of AU returns to Athabasca,” said Major. “So, I guess our question is how can we help you make that happen?”
van Dijken acknowledged the concern, noting a meeting he had arranged with the Minister of Advanced Education Demetrios Nicolaides that included Rotary Club of Athabasca president Bernie Giacobbo and professor emeritus Mike Gismondi among others.
“I’ve had other meetings with the Advanced Education minister, highlighting the need to ensure that Athabasca University has a strong presence within Athabasca,” said van Dijken. “The minister is looking for ways to ensure that the university can continue to be viable in a global competitive realm, going forward, and with that there’s always the need to ensure that it attracts the people that can actually ensure that that’s possible.”
Alex Kondra, the MBA program director at AU, who has previously served as a senior vice president for the university, said the failure to encourage people to live in the community is detrimental to both the Athabasca region and to the institution, saying the critical mass of staff needs to be located in Athabasca.
“You talk about the failure to have a critical mass in Athabasca and I hear from both sides and (AU) administration would have me believe that we have a failure of getting qualified people,” said van Dijken.
Kondra said that is not the case and AU needs to do better promoting living in the region.
“I enjoy living in this community. You look at the Rotary Club for example, lots of great people, very vibrant community. We worked really hard to make it a great place to live,” he said. “And as I said, people commute further in Toronto and Vancouver just to get to work. I commute six minutes.”
Gerry Kiselyk noted faculty like Gismondi and Kondra, whom he called “amazing professionals,” have chosen to stay in Athabasca, and the community is richer for it.
“Maybe the No. 1 person doesn’t want to come here, but if the No. 2 person in the world considers coming here, how much have we really lost,” Kiselyk said. “We’re missing the fact that we’re throwing a town under the bus.”
John Ollerenshaw noted Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries (Al-Pac) has most of its executives living in the area.
“Their executive is almost entirely located locally; they could live in Edmonton, but they don’t. The company says their jobs are here,” he said. “We need a president for that university who cares about the university, not about their own career.”
Giacobbo added it’s hard to call Athabasca a university town when the leaders do not live in the area.
“(Fassina) left for a lower paying job in Kamloops and I asked him if he was going to move there, and he said, most definitely. But it was not a most definite move here,” he said. “So, one personal agenda by one individual has created a lot of frustration and anxiety within our community.”
van Dijken ended the meeting saying he would speak with Giacobbo to discuss how he can help with the concerns mentioned.
