The Algonquin College Food Services team has donated more than 8,000 products, including beverages and snacks, to The Ottawa Mission.
In its most recent website posting, The Mission noted that through God’s grace and direction, and staff devotion and community support, it has been able to provide services under the most challenging circumstances during the pandemic. Algonquin made two deliveries recently to complete the donation.
“We hope this contribution will help support The Ottawa Mission as they serve our community,” said André Villeneuve, Algonquin’s Senior Operations Manager, Food & Conference Services.
Photo: Mark Callingham from the Ottawa Mission receiving the donations.
We are now within days of the return of some of our learners to Algonquin College as we slowly resume in-person education on a limited basis in a government-initiated pilot. This is an exciting time, but also a time for a few reminders about our priorities and future direction.
There have been many questions about our summer pilot initiative and I would like to emphasize that we are proceeding with great care. As I mentioned in my communiqué last week, it will involve a small number of learners (fewer than 200) in a few programs of study at our Ottawa and Pembroke campuses. Our teams are working to make sure that we have the proper resources and equipment available, that the right protocols are in place, and that we are making the health and safety of our employees and learners our first priorities. This is truly a team effort, and as our provincial government has noted, we all have a role to play by continuing to follow public health guidelines, which are informing all of our decisions. Everyone should practice physical distancing with people who are not in our social circles, wear non-medical masks if physical distancing is challenging, and wash our hands thoroughly and frequently. With the great care we are all taking, I know we will have a safe and successful new beginning at our College.
We are also working on a digital Campus Access guide that will feature health and safety measures to help guide the College community during limited campus activities this summer and in the fall. It is designed for the select students and employees who will be permitted on our campuses — when necessary — as part of their work and learning activities. The guide will be on our COVID-19 website and easily downloadable. It will contain information on everything from prevention measures and physical distancing to campus access and the use of protective equipment. It is meant to be a one-stop key information source for those who must be on our campuses in the coming months; we will share more details when it is finalized.
Algonquin College, in partnership with the Indigenous Peoples’ Education Circle (IPEC), is launching a knowledge-sharing and storytelling initiative, Lighting the Fire, that will connect college students and leaders from across Ontario over the next four weeks.
The sessions are being produced through the Burnt Water initiative, an Algonquin project devoted to providing a vision and curriculum for Indigenous leadership and entrepreneurship.
Indigenous leaders are inviting college students, and anyone with an interest, to join in the virtual sessions, that are hoped to inspire and stimulate different ways of thinking, including how the province, the country and the entire world considers the path forward from the COVID-19 pandemic.
I hope that you are all enjoying the warmer weather this week — a confirmation that summer is officially arriving on Saturday and, with it, some positive news and events around our College.
Last week, the Ontario government announced that we could resume in-person education on a limited basis, starting in July. This is most welcome news as it will allow us to help our learners in programs that support essential front-line, high labour-market demand areas. We are working with our government partners and following public-health guidelines in order to successfully open our doors again and we are very excited to welcome learners and faculty in Massage Therapy, Cardiovascular Technology, Diagnostic Cardiac Sonography, Diagnostic Medical Sonography, Welding and Fabrication Technician, Automotive Service Technician and Forestry back to our campuses. Not only will these programs produce graduates trained in critical areas, but they will also help us lay the groundwork for the return of more programs in the future. Continue reading Message from the President – June 17
I would like to share more details about our academic plans for the Fall term.
First and foremost, I want to thank students and their families for their ongoing patience and understanding. In a time of many unknowns, we appreciate how challenging it has been to deal with added uncertainty around your studies. And I want to thank our Academic employees and other departmental teams whose tireless, dedicated work helped make our Fall plans possible.
OTTAWA – The Ontario government’s announcement today that in-person education and training at colleges will resume next month on a limited basis ensures more students will complete their programs and acquire the expertise sought by employers.
“This is tremendous news for students and for employers in key sectors who will need qualified people to help drive Ontario’s economic recovery,” said Claude Brulé, President and CEO of Algonquin College. “We’re very pleased with the government’s ongoing commitment to our students’ success and to the colleges’ continued delivery of high-quality programs.”
Colleges and Universities Minister Ross Romano announced today that in-person classes will resume in July in a range of college programs that require hands-on work to fulfil the programs’ requirements.
In the days since my last communiqué, I was pleased to hear from many of you regarding our College’s position on inclusion and diversity. Recent events have sparked some important, but also difficult conversations, at home and around the world. I am grateful to all of you for helping us keep that conversation going. I am hopeful that this dialogue will lead to positive and lasting change through the work of our Inclusion and Diversity Blueprint, and in the way we treat one another in our daily lives.
This week we have had promising news from our Premier about restrictions being eased in communities where it safe to do so. The province has included Ottawa among the areas permitted to begin Phase 2 of the reopening plan (it should be noted that post-secondary institutions are not on the initial re-opening schedule announced this week). This is welcome news that I know will be met with great enthusiasm. However, as our government has stated, it is still important that we continue physical distancing, wear face masks when physical distancing is a challenge, and wash our hands frequently. The province remains under a Declaration of Emergency until June 30.
Information is changing rapidly and our teams across the College are working to adjust accordingly. You will be receiving an important communiqué from Chris Janzen, Senior Vice President, Academic, tomorrow, June 11, that will contain more details about our Fall term. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have had to adapt to new realities, including making some difficult decisions about how we deliver our Fall programs in order to put the safety of our students and employees first.
We are not the only organization faced with difficult choices. On Monday, the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) and its members announced the decision to suspend varsity sports and recreation activities planned for the 2020 Fall semester. I can understand how disappointing this news was for so many of our outstanding athletes, who always represented our College with pride on the field or the court. While this is very disheartening, I know our teams will return as strong as ever when the time comes, and that Algonquin fans will be waiting to cheer you on.
Amidst all of this, I would like to acknowledge our Class of 2020, whose convocation ceremonies were postponed due to the pandemic — now was to have been your time. You have shown great strength of character, and now more than ever I applaud you for your resolve. We know that you are eagerly awaiting more information about our convocation plans for the Fall, and I wanted to let you know that we hope to have more details to share with you next week. Until then, I would encourage you to watch a congratulatory video from Ross Romano, Minister of Colleges and Universities.
Each week I try to share the most important news and updates with you. I realize that these updates affect each of you in different ways. Our College community is home to all of us — learners, support and administrative employees, faculty and our Algonquin College Leadership and Executive Teams — and I know you are all doing your very best to move forward in a positive way while trying to navigate these unprecedented times. Thank you to all of you for your efforts, large and small, to help us get through the challenges we face.
Monday’s press conference at Queen’s Park revealed that trending numbers for Ontario are “encouraging” and that we are now seeing “some of the lowest increases that we’ve seen in a long time.” These past few months have been very demanding, but I hope that this news brings new hope to everyone that we are beginning to turn a corner. Please keep up the good work that you are doing, and know that my virtual door is always open if you have any feedback to share.
OTTAWA (June 4, 2020) – Give your fingers a workout, top up your coffee and get your mind ready to learn again. Algonquin College Corporate Training (ACCT) has opened 1,150 additional spots for its free, instructor-led, virtual classroom courses to help give back to the community during COVID-19.
In addition, the ACCT team has added several new short courses and is offering a 25 per cent discount on its paid courses, which will also be delivered virtually.
“As a part of Ontario’s community college system, we are dedicated to helping our communities survive and thrive in both good times and in difficult moments such as these,” said Doug Wotherspoon, Executive Director of Business Development at Algonquin College. “We are proud to be able to expand our offerings in support of the businesses and people of Ontario who are looking to sharpen their skills at work or strengthen their resume for their next opportunity.”
It is difficult to believe that it has been almost three months since we temporarily closed our campuses and began to transform how we go about our work and our studies. We concluded our Winter term, launched our Spring term, and now plans are well underway to take us into the Fall term. I know our teams are working hard to ensure we have everything in place to respond to a number of potential pandemic recovery-related scenarios, and the College will be releasing more details regarding our Fall term academic activities by Friday, June 12.
The province’s State of Emergency will be extended through the end of this month, and while this means there are still many restrictions that we must follow, we are still actively planning for the future. The presidents of the Ontario colleges, myself included, endorsed a statement released on Monday that outlines our collective strategies for approaching the Fall term. Together, we have reaffirmed our commitment to protecting the safety of students and employees and have described some of the options we are considering in order to continue providing excellence in programming through remote learning. Our statement also looks at how the colleges are developing guidelines to promote physical distancing in cases where hands-on instruction is delivered on campus, as well as protocols for cleaning, and rules for using personal protective equipment (PPE). You can read the full statement here. Continue reading Message from the President – June 03
While I plan to send out a more detailed communiqué later this week, I did not want another day to pass without mentioning the violence we are seeing across North America, particularly in the United States. I am deeply troubled that our society continues to be besieged by racism and discrimination of any kind and am saddened to read of those who have suffered or lost their lives because of it.
If you need support at this time, please do not hesitate to reach out so that we can help you. Learners can find resources here and our employees can find resources here.
