Without any additional funding, Portage College will be implementing significant change to the academic and operational management of the College. Changes will be made to ultimately increase student success by clarifying reporting structures for College staff, adjusting academic management responsibilities, and improve outcome measurements. In the process, three full time existing senior positions will be eliminated, freeing up funds to pay for the new positions in the realigned organizational structure.
Dr. Trent Keough, the incoming President of Portage College, who officially takes up the position as of June 28, 2010, explains the philosophy of change.
"Over the next several years, ‘Teaching and Learning' will become ingrained as our institutional mantra and the sole finite measure of our shared successes. All that the College does will be driven by measurable excellence in teaching and learning. We will transform and support today's learning customers in anticipation of their ongoing needs for quality life-long learning experiences," he said.
The College has successfully recruited for the new position of Director of Teaching and Learning, funded from currently vacant and reorganized managerial positions. This management position will focus efforts on excellence in teaching at Portage and will support activities related to human development, credit and program transfer, employability training and ongoing professionalism.
Keough, with a "teaching and learning" mandate from the Board of Governors, has set forth a series of adjustments to the current organizational structure.
Presently, the College is run under three centres of operation in the following regional campuses: Lac La Biche, Cold Lake and St. Paul. The academic and operational leadership of the College resides at the Lac La Biche Corporate Centre. The St. Paul and Cold Lake Regional Centres currently exist under the operational leadership of Regional Directors. As of July 1, the Regional Director positions will be eliminated.
Currently at Portage, two academic Dean positions exist and oversee the academic management of more than 50 programs at Portage.
Within the new organizational structure, the number of academic Dean position will increase from two to four. The operational direction for the Cold Lake and St. Paul regions will have administrative supervisory services relative to their size and diversity. The new positions of Dean of Health and Wellness and Dean of Business and University Studies will be implemented. These positions will reside at the Cold Lake campus. All academic Dean positions will have both operational and functional responsibilities across all campuses and learning locations of Portage College.
Believing in a "One College" philosophy, Keough said that organizational change is necessary if campuses are to feel ownership of academic authority. "The vision is to have leadership residing outside of the corporate centre."
Over the past four years in his capacity of Vice President, Academic, he's heard this need to feel academic ownership in comments from staff.
As well, the non-academic position of Dean of Community and Industry Training (CITI) who currently shares operational responsibility with the current Regional Directors will become a Director of CITI. By providing Continuing Education non-government funded courses and programs, the CITI department supplies the College with revenue to allow the College to be innovative.
Through time and with further clarification of the College's role in literacy education, Keough contends another Dean's position could be located in the St. Paul region.
"The increase in academic Deans' positions (from two to four) will decrease the number of programs for which each Dean is responsible, thereby freeing up their time for program incubation and will allow them to focus on learning excellence within their division," said Keough.
As well, a new department, the Office of Cooperative Learning and Career Advancement will be created to manage College student recruitment and student career counseling. Keough added that this department will not be created immediately, since one of the duties of the incoming Vice President Academic is to define the increased role of comprehensive learning in College programs.
The Board of Governors of Portage College expects that the College will be a model for rural education, said Keough. "We can make this expectation a reality when other institutions knowingly adapt and adopt our instructional and administrative practices. If Portage College is to be imitated, these practices must be measurable, self-conscious of their purposes and outcomes driven.
"Clearly, we will require change in our institutional perspective and resulting image."
For more information, please contact Leona Geller at 780-623-5591.
