Cloverdale admissions moving to Langley

Provost won’t rule out the possibility of future cuts at Cloverdale campus.

By Matt DiMera & Sarah Schuchard

More than two dozen faculty and students confronted university administration last month after receiving an April 13 memo outlining changes to student services on Kwantlen’s Cloverdale campus.

Most of the Cloverdale admission staff will be moved to Langley in May, leaving only a single person at a counter to deal with students, according to the memo. It also explains that Cloverdale will be turned into a cashless campus at an unspecified later date.

Anne Lavack, Kwantlen’s provost and vice president – academic, and a phalanx of administrators, met with the informal group Thursday, April 19, to quell concerns over the alleged cuts.

In the meeting, Lavack repeatedly insisted the changes were not cuts and would actually expand the total hours of frontline service from 33.5 hours to 40 hours. She also fired back at the crowd, criticizing Kwantlen faculty for their “culture of grumbling.”

“If you notice something that’s amiss that needs to be fixed and has to do with some other part of the university, don’t just grumble among yourselves at coffee, go and talk to [your dean],” she said. “You need to kind of change this culture of grumbling and turn it into an action-oriented culture where you work with your dean to get things changed. That’s the way to get things done.”

Faculty members also expressed concerns at the seeming lack of consultation and notice, upon learning that the plans had been in the works since 2010. Several faculty also asked if there were plans to cut other services, such as the bookstore, the library, food services or counselling.

Lavack would not rule out the possibility of more cuts being made to Cloverdale services in the future.

“Things are tough all over the university and they’re not going to get any easier,” she explained.

“There’s always ideas floating around,” she said. “I’m not saying that there won’t be changes in the future to try and create some economy, but we want to try and maintain as many services as we can here at Cloverdale.”

Lavack did not respond to a request for an interview from The Runner before deadline.