My Saint John Includes UNBSJ

In what will surely go down in history as one of the most ill-advised recommendations in the history of NB government commissions, the province's PSE commission has recently recommended the effective downgrading of UNBSJ from its current status as a comprehensive university.

The poor souls found at the Edmunston and Shippegan satellites of U de M are also to be sacrificed, in the name of "transformational change" that no one really seems ready to embrace. All told, if the commission recommendations are to be accepted, students from both the Fundy Coast and the North Shore of the province will be forced to migrate elsewhere (including, obviously, out of province universities) if they hope to complete a 4 year university degree. The significant international perspective UNBSJ is bringing to New Brunswick will also effectively be undermined, as will the research capacity of our province.

Ultimately, if the most dramatic proposals are accepted, our fine province will be less-educated. Poor old Louis Robichaud's revolutionary experiment of Equal Opportunity (and its strong education component) is now facing the prospects of its own funeral. Let's hope these dumb ideas are promptly shelved, and the old man's expirement gets to continue. New Brunswickers deserve access to quality higher education today, just as they did in the decade in which UNBSJ and UdeM were first established.