There is a rich history of university education in Prince Albert and people with first-hand knowledge had the chance to talk about it at the Prince Albert Historical Museum on Sunday.
Dale Dooley, Peter Kalyn and Connie Gerwing, who all have ties to post-secondary education in Prince Albert, delivered a Coffee and Conversation presentation entitled “University Education in Prince Albert”.
Kalyn said the trio decided to do some research on the subject following a discussion with Rob Procyk, Campus Lead and Academic Advisor of Direct Entry Programs with the Prince Albert USask Campus.
“It’s a presentation that spawns from us visiting the University of Saskatchewan campus here, and us asking what material they had in the history of university education in Prince Albert,” Kalyn explained. “They had a limited amount of material, and they encouraged me to provide them with a much expanded document.”
He said that between the three of them and conversations with people, they were able to outline the history, which dates back to the late 1800s.
“We found that Prince Albert has an extensive university history,” Kalyn said.
Prince Albert received a charter for the University of Saskatchewan in 1883. The Anglican Church established Emmanuel College in 1879 which then became the University. The Federal Charter expired in 1905, and the university was established in Saskatoon.
In her part of the presentation, Gerwing said that it was a myth that Prince Albert could have either had the Penitentiary or the University.
Around 1915 a Normal School (teacher’s college) was established in Prince Albert. Kalyn said that the school divisions had a vital role in establishing university programming in the city.
“We Found out that the school divisions played a vital role in the development of university programming in Prince Albert, particularly the Prince Albert Public School Board,” Kalyn said. “There was a close cooperation between the various school boards.”
Prince Albert was also the location of the first Community College in Saskatchewan, founded in 1969 before the province created it provincially in the 1970s.
Lorne Sparling was the founding Principal of Saskatchewan’s first community college in Prince Albert, and Principal of Carlton Comprehensive High School.
“That was in the early 1963, ’64, they organized a community college association,” Kalyn said. “Because it was the association that had school board members on it, they had a focus towards university programming, and they started small with meagre financial means.”
Kalyn said that in 1974 more federal and provincial money came into the system and the university programming expanded. Kalyn explained that the concept had a board and structure
“The association drew in anyone interested in adult education in the city, (and) in the area,” Kalyn said. “(The) council was people who used the services and then the board and those people pushed the board and people like me and Dale to focus in on various things.”
Dooley started out as a program counsellor but held a variety of roles.
“When I got involved with the university program, I was basically the university program counsellor, student advisor,” Dooley said.
Gerwing also worked as education counsellor at SIAST with Dooley and Kalyn. Kalyn was the manager of the Extension Division program.
“I had responsibility for introducing that kind of programming, (and) maintaining that kind of programming in Prince Albert and area,” Kalyn explained.
He said he was fortunate to work with Dooley, coordinator of university programming Dave Krip and Mel Curniski who was the Principal of the Community College beginning in 1979, and also Sparling.
“It was very much a system,” Kalyn said. “The college developed a kind of a motto, ‘the community is the college, the college is the community’ and for some unbeknownst reason almost everyone that worked for the system, from clerical support people right to the board, embodied that kind of attitude and feeling attitude and worked off that kind of vision.”
Kalyn said that the university programming in Prince Albert expanded to include the University of Regina, Athabasca University and others.
He explained that organizations like the Chamber of Commerce and City of Prince Albert met with the community college and put pressure to expand programs.
“The board started to commit dollars to that kind of programming,” he said.
Both Dooley and Kalyn thought that having a physical campus for the University of Saskatchewan in Prince Albert was an outstanding development.
“As a group, the community college group sort of referred to the Prince Albert off-campus University of Saskatchewan program as our program,” Dooley said.
Dooley said it would not have developed into a university program without initiatives by Kalyn and Krip.
Kalyn became the Principal of the SIAST Woodland Campus (now Saskatchewan Polytechnic Prince Albert Campus) in 1990. In 1988 The Institute Act and the Regional Colleges Act amalgamated Saskatchewan’s technical institutes, urban community colleges and the Advanced Technology Training Centre to form the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST).
Kalyn said that he wanted to keep university programming at SIAST after the campus decided it did not want to be part of university programming.
“But because of the ties we had with one another and the belief we had in one another and in the need, instead of taking funds out or diverting them elsewhere, through our means, we were able to we were able to redirect funding and expand,” Kalyn said. “Instead of downsizing university programming, we actually expanded it.”
Dooley said that Kalyn took over in 1990 and retired in 2001. Krip acted as university program coordinator from 1983 to 1998. Dooley himself started as a university programmer in 1990 and worked until 1998 when the positions of counsellor and programmer were combined and worked in that position until he retired in 2004
“All the credit goes to people like him,” Kalyn said. “It was very much a people-based system. People very committed to bringing that kind of program to Prince Albert, very committed to Prince Albert and the area, so we not only offer programs in Prince Albert, but we’re in Shellbrook and Rosthern and Birch Hills.”
He said that through Krips help they were able to manage the quota of 15 students to make the system pay for itself.
“And actually, towards the end, I think it actually started to (become) profitable,” Kalyn said.
The crowd at the Coffee and Conversation included representatives from the past and present of university in Prince Albert.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
