The University of Saskatchewan (USask) Prince Albert campus hosted its third Open House on Friday evening.
Prospective undergraduate students, parents, student supporters, and school counsellors registered in advance to take part in a full evening of activities. USask Prince Albert Campus Principal Jay Wilson said they’re trying to spread the word about what the campus has to offer.
“We’ve got a bunch of different colleges and schools from Saskatoon coming up here and giving the students an opportunity to find out what their program is like, find out what their options are,” Wilson said. “Most of the students that come here are in their Grade 12 year and so they’re looking for next year’s opportunities and what they might want to do.”
Some examples of colleges in attendance included the Edwards School of Business, Agricultural and Bioresources, and the College of Arts and Science.
Wilson said the goals was to showcase both on the Prince Albert Campus and the Main Campus in Saskatoon because they are all one big university.
“Most of our programs you can start here in Prince Albert,” he said. “You can’t finish all of them, but they’re still part of the same program. It gives people a chance to find out (they) can do year one of this program here. Parents are coming as well, and so they can also see that there’s opportunities to keep their kids home for one more year, save a little bit more money.”
The event included an info fair to meet college representatives, information sessions to learn about USask programs offered in Prince Albert, campus tours, and workshops on how to apply for admission.
Wilson said the open house continues to evolve in its third year as they learn more about the students looking to study at the PA campus.
“Each year it’s a new group, unless they’ve had a sibling come through,” Wilson said. “We don’t have to do too much in terms of radical change because some of these people have never been in the building before. They haven’t heard the spiel about the different programs.”
There are a few new course offerings that have recently started, or will start next year. Wilson said they’re allowing high school students to take a class in the Edwards School of Business to get ahead of the post-secondary workload. They’re also piloting some “face-to-face Commerce courses”.
The College of Agriculture and Bioresources is also offering a certificate course beginning this summer.
Wilson said that, even though it is early in the fall term thing are positive on the campus. Early in a semester students have a tendency to drop out so maintaining numbers is a positive.
“From our fall initial enrolment, we’ve maintained really good numbers,” he said.
“I don’t want to say I’m surprised because that’s something that we would expect, but I’m surprised by the fact that we have retained the students that we have, so I think that speaks volumes about when people get here they realize it’s a different experience than maybe they had thought.”
They are also adding supports for students as needs evolve.
“We continue to work really hard to provide a supportive environment,” Wilson said. “We’ve added an Arts and Science advisor. We’re adding an Edwards advisor so those kinds of student supports are really key to what’s going on here.”
President Peter Stoicheff visited in September for a look around and also to address an alumni gathering. He said the visit included other important people from the Main Campus.
“The Board of Governors was here and they really were thrilled with the building, the programming, the supports we have in place,” Wilson said. “Many of those folks had not been here before or were new to Prince Albert so it was great.”
He explained that incoming President Vince Bruno-Bossi, new Chancellor Scott Banda and CFE Deidre Henne were also in Prince Albert for their first visits.
“They asked lots of really good questions, but they were all positive and they were all directed towards the growth of the campus,” Wilson said.
He said that the visiting group of administration showed their backing for the campus.
“We’re confident that we’re going to continue to grow and that’s always been at the heart, the vision for this place is to bring everybody together and then just fill the building with students and programs,” Wilson said.
Wilson said the Open House also gave people who had never seen the campus a chance to look inside. The tour included the Dentistry facilities and nursing facilities as well as places like the student lounge.
Rob Procyk, Campus Lead for the USask Prince Albert Campus, gave three information sessions.
Wilson said there was a healthy number of students and parents who pre-registered.
“There was good interest, both from the two school divisions here in Prince Albert, as well as high schools outside of Prince Albert, so that’s always good,” Wilson said.
Wilson said that this was just one open house opportunity but they would always welcome interested people with questions.
Overall, Wilson said that the entire evening had positive energy. He said there are some assumptions the USask PA campus is seeing lower enrolment, but that’s not the case.
“We’re actually growing in a number of areas with some programs, so we’re really, really happy about that,” Wilson said.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
