Peter Lougheed Leadership College accepting first round of applicants

Students can now apply for admission into the Peter Lougheed Leadership College — a move that Students’ Union Vice-President (Academic) Kathryn Orydzuk worries may be premature due to an incomplete program, a delayed residence and uncertainty about the college and its curriculum.

Orydzuk said she’s concerned about the first round of students being admitted in Fall 2015, since the programming is not completed yet.

“We have students applying to a project that is not yet completed,” Orydzuk said. “As students are applying (Leadership College Project Managers) are still building certain aspects of the certificate.”

Orydzuk said she was worried about the ambitious timelines, as these don’t allow everything to be passed through university governance in time for the 2015 intake. She added that since the certificate will involve a heavy workload it would be useful for students to know what they are committing to.

As it stands, only the first year foundations courses of the two-year certificate program are ready, with professors signed-on to participate and seminars in the works. However the program is being “built as they go,” Orydzuk said, since the second year remains unplanned.The residence has also been delayed. The college’s residence was initially set to skip the first intake of students, as it would open in Fall 2016. But according to Orydzuk, the residence has been delayed further for reasons unknown to the SU.

The residence has also been delayed. The college’s residence was initially set to skip the first intake of students, as it would open in Fall 2016. But according to Orydzuk, the residence has been delayed further for reasons unknown to the SU.

As a result, students admitted into the Leadership College, who were going to live in the residence, will be taking shelter in Lister Centre’s Schaffer Hall.

A Campus-Only Online Course (COOC), which was to be ready for the Fall 2015 intake has also been delayed. Orydzuk expressed her disappointment, as she said this was one of the major selling-points of the college to the SU. COOC’s would allow many students to participate at the same time while giving them the flexibility to do the course content on their own time.

“The SU thinks the Leadership College is a good initiative, but we want to see it done right,” Orydzuk said.

Orydzuk said the SU doesn’t know the reason behind the COOC’s delay, but she thinks it’s because they take a long time to develop.

Amidst unfamiliar student concerns about accessibility and elitism, Orydzuk said that a positive step made by the Leadership Initiative is in alleviating financial barriers to attending the college.

She explained that every student admitted into the college will receive a $10,000 scholarship that will pay for income and tuition, since each of the students are required to spend their summer doing a leadership-volunteer opportunity.

But Orydzuk said she still has concerns over the college’s current fundraising model, which involves placing the Leadership College as the university’s funding priority for the Office of Advancement.

“I find it odd that this is the funding priority when we are experiencing a decrease in the quality of our education where we are seeing programs getting cut and we are losing professors,” she said.

Orydzuk also raised concerns about how the college’s program interacts with already-existing leadership opportunities. She said that talk of what does and doesn’t count to the leadership certificate raises the question of what the U of A as an institution is saying about leadership in terms of what is, and what isn’t leadership.

“I don’t think we should devalue the existing leadership opportunities on campus,” she said. “I think that it would be really great if they worked in tandem.”

Orydzuk said she would have liked to see the college delayed until it can provide a more complete experience for students

“I would rather see a program that is completed before we see students committing to put a lot of time and effort into it,” she said.