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In a move which will only hurt the communities and cause the NWT to be even more Yellowknife-centric, Aurora College decided to close almost 20 community learning centres (CLC) throughout the territory last month and switch to online learning. 

The college announced the move back in January, citing low enrolment as the main reason.

This move has the potential to severely harm the fabric of many smaller towns and hamlets where these centres are a cohesive element and offer hope where hope is quickly disappearing. This decision, made with no consultation or transparency, has the potential to cause untold harm to some of our outlying communities and could set the territory back decades in its educational evolution.

Instead of cutting or reducing services, the college needs to move in the opposite direction and offer a broader range of classes of interest particular to the communities they are meant to serve and those will vary greatly as does the character of the hamlet.

During this time when the focus is supposed to be on strengthening rural areas for the sake of Arctic sovereignty,why would the college leave its CLCs in shambles as a cost-saving measure? The suspicion is that it was all part of a move to push a polytechnic in Yellowknife through, thereby leaving many communities with nothing. This ignores the diversity of the North along with the individual needs of those towns and its people who are so dependent on their family support and connections.

It shows little respect for the struggles that some remote areas are experiencing and any willingness to help them where they are at. 

Fort Smith and Inuvik are prime examples of existing impressive college Infrastructures able to accommodate local and existing students instead of trying to force people into Yellowknife where there is none. The programs there were designed to offer courses in teaching, nursing, dental care to name a few examples with a particular focus on the North thereby fulfilling the original mandate of the college: 黑料吃瓜网ers working to help 黑料吃瓜网ers.  

The needs have not disappeared, only the services have. 

The campuses and student housing in those communities is in place. What is not there are people motivated to make the colleges work. If appealing and helpful courses are offered, the students will come. 

Instead of further reducing programs and limiting course access, the college needs to be asking the communities what they want, what would be helpful, and provide it. This is not the time to shut down. And as we know from experience, once services are removed, they stay removed.

With climate change and a shift in industry now that the mines are scheduled to close, the college needs to be asking the communities what skill sets they need to help them survive? In addition to teaching, cultural awareness, and traditional language arts, what about healthy hunting practices, forestry, and food production? Why not more focus on the arts with training in sculpture, sewing, and jewelry making?

The North has a world-renowned reputation in fine arts and now with its changing economy, it needs to build and capitalize on its latent talents. This is a time for the north to be bold, and the college needs to take a leading role in that.

And, of course, underlying all of this is the healing arts where the North is desperate for social workers and home-grown healers willing to help others. 

This is not a time for the college to reduce its services. It is time to think outside the box and offer the kind of programs that would help residents throughout this territory. It appears that even the board of governors cannot see the college for the life saving and life-giving institution it is. 

As we navigate these uncertain times with our sovereignty at risk and our economy trying to move in new directions, the college needs to ask itself how it can play a greater role in the NWT's future, not one that is greatly reduced or eliminated. 

Aurora College needs to re-evaluate the path it is on and ask the communities what they need. Online learning just doesn't cut it.