Capilano College in the 80's

by Dr. L.M. Srivastava, Chairman of the
Capilano College Board.

Forecasting educational trends is
hazardous at best. In the fifties, there
was a general disenchantment with
Natural Seienees and Engineering. The
first space shot by the Russians changed
that attitude for 15 years. Ecology used
to be the stagnant backwater of Biology
until the early 60s. The growing
awareness of increasing populations,
limited and dwindling resources,
increasing atmospheric and _ aquatic
pollution brought ecology to the
forefront of biological disciplines in the
70s. These shifts come as a surprise, but
they are many years in the making. The
suecess of an educational institution and
its ability to draw public funds depend to
a large measure on its ability to monitor
these latent trends and to be able to
meet public demand at the appropriate
time. To do this, a college or university
has to maintain enough flexibility that it
ean change without sacrificing quality of
instruction.

The last 10 years have seen a remarkable
proliferation of colleges and institutes in
B.C. Their numbers have risen from 1 to
20 and they now account for more than
$150 million in publie funds. It is safe to
assume that the next decade will not see
growth of this scale; rather, it will be a
period of assessment, consolidation, even
retrenchment. The days of large
inereases in school population, caused by
baby booms and migration of people,
seem to be over. There is also a general
trend toward greater public control over,
and institutional accountability for,
public dollars spent on education. With
20 colleges and institutes and 3
universities competing for money for

48

higher education in B.C., funds will be
limited and will go in large part to those
that are meritorious and distinctive. It
is in being meritorious and distinctive
that Capilano College has shown its
strength in the past. I hope that will
eontinue. We must also realise that
there is neither any need for nor any
virtue in constant growth in enrollment
and operational and capital spending.
What is required in education is adequate
funding for specified needs.

The College in the 80s will still provide
instruction in the academic disciplines,
but the variety of subjects covered and
depth of instruction in each may change
and be more suited to the special
requirements of the college and the
expertise of the faculty. A variety of
eareer and vocational programs will
continue to be offered, but it will be a
constant challenge for the college to be
innovative and daring in designing new
programs and phasing out old ones, as the
needs of the community change. The
eollege population is changing. Already
at Capilano College, more than 30% of
the student population is in the over-30
group. Many of these men and women
are here for intellectual curiosity and
emotional satisfaction, not necessarily to
improve their marketable skills. In the
80s this segment of the college
population will grow, and so will the need
for rigorous, quality courses which may
be multi-disciplinary in approach but are
self-contained units, not necessarily
leading to a_ degree. Year-round
operations of the college is a possibility,
as is the opening of new centres in
addition to the centres at Lynnmour and
Squamish, now operating. What else?
We will all be ten years older, hopefully

wiser, and more mature. c