Andrew Oland’s task group - What they really recommended!

There are a lot of words being thrown around the community these days. Andrew Oland is one such recipient of these words. Let me attempt to explain. Andrew was a member of a task group that was setup to gather input and create recommendations regarding post-secondary education in Saint John. These recommendations were then handed off to a commission who’s job was to take the input of all the task groups and create a report for the provincial government.

This final report contained some controversial recommendations, and it is for this reason that people are starting to go out of their way to discredit Andrew. But why you might ask? Simply because they lash out at anyone involved in the report - no matter what they actually recommended.

The fact is Andrew’s task group recommended expanding UNB-SJ, moving NBCC-SJ to Tucker Park, creating a single president and board of directors to manage the two independent institutions, and to increase the number of education options offered at the two campuses. Notice that I never once mentioned downgrading UNB-SJ or Polytechnic. That’s the important observation people need to make. Andrew is not advocating that the campus be downgraded or changed. He is advocating that it be expanded and offer more options for students. How can you argue with that?

For the full story on what the task group recommended to the commission, check out this story from the Telegraph Journal: Create an educational powerhouse.