Keep Comm and Carry on!

Before you read any further…GO SIGN THIS PETITION PLEASE!!! Everything is explained below, but I want to make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to help out by signing the petition. It will take you less than 2 minutes I PROMISE!

You might remember me sharing a post last year about visiting Camosun College as a seminar speaker for the Applied Communication Program – the same program I graduated from only two years previous! Well, sadly it was just recently announced that this program will no longer continue after the current first year class graduates in April 2013 because of some very unfortunate budgets being cut by the BC Government to Camosun College.

This news has been disheartening to alumni and current students and faculty alike. If you live in Victoria BC, chances are extremely high that you know someone who graduated from this program; we are everywhere! We’re in radio stations, TV newsrooms, government positions, design firms, communications offices, and so many other places (including running our own successful businesses!) that it’s completely hard to believe this program would ever be discontinued!

So today I found myself back on campus with one of my fellow alumni, the wonderful Jennifer Lancaster, and we occupied Village Now, the on-campus radio station that has been hit especially hard with the program’s cancellation, but a notice to immediately close the radio station’s online broadcasting. Meaning the current students, who will be finishing their last year of the program this upcoming fall may not receive the practical education of what it’s like to work in a radio station similar to what they would find in the working world.

During my time at the Applied Communciation Program, I interned at Village Now (which back then was called Village 900) for the summer (the same summer I married John actually!) and it was one of the highlights of the program for me.

A new digital media communications program has been proposed to Camosun College but there is no confirmation of its acceptance yet. I can’t stress enough how important it is for Victoria to continue with some sort of hands on media training.

So PLEASE if you have a moment, go sign the PETITION. Want some more information on this situation? Check out these links:

CTV Vancouver Island Story - this is a great video to learn how misinformed the government representative, Naomi Yamamoto, is about the hands-on education that is provided as a part of the Applied Communication Program. Comparing it to a program at the University of Victoria that hardly draws parallels, this video makes my heart sink.
Times Colonist Article
Vancouver Sun Article
Oak Bay News Article
Open Letter from an ACP Alumni, Amanda Farrell-Low – so well written!