OCSU Letter of Support for First-Year BSN Students
April 11, 2023
The Okanagan College Students’ Union is writing to Minister Selina Robinson, the Okanagan College Board of Governors, Okanagan College Education Council, Carly Hall, Dean of Health and Social Development, the University of British Columbia-Okanagan Senate, the Kelowna MLA’s, and our OC Community in solidarity and support of our Bachelor of Nursing students and faculty.
We are deeply concerned and disheartened about the recent announcement of the intended consolidation of OC’s 1st and 2nd year BSN program with UBC Okanagan. Our first year BSN students are being put in an unfair and nonconsensual situation and they have yet to hear of how they will be supported through this transition, aside from their seats in the program. A final decision may not be rendered until mid-summer by the OC Board of Governors and Education Council, plus the UBC-O Senate. The timing of the decision-making bodies will have serious financial, transitory, and housing planning impacts for these students as they have outlined in their letter to you.
It is deeply unsettling to see that, once again, Okanagan College students are not being considered or consulted on decisions which directly affect them, and that Okanagan College leadership is once again declining to communicate with the community and public.
We are furthermore shocked that the dedicated long-term faculty will be without employment and their instructional skills are not being utilized in continuing to help address the province’s nursing shortages.
We are questioning how all of our community members who donated to the new Health and Science building in support of the BSN program, including ourselves, will be informed that their generous contributions are no longer going where they intended. Their funds are vital to this institution.
OCSU is calling on the stakeholders of this consolidation to take into consideration the asks and concerns of the year one BSN students of Okanagan College, and to recognize the unfair predicament they are being forced into. We also ask you to support the nursing faculty who will be without secure employment this fall in a time when the province has committed to supporting nurses in BC in the face of our healthcare system crisis. Okanagan College leadership must address the concerns and predicaments these students are now in and guide them in how they are to proceed from here as soon as possible. It is unacceptable for OC’s leadership to once again leave students in the dark over a decision that directly affects them.
In Solidarity,
Okanagan College Students’ Union Board of Directors