Gordon Barnhart, University of Saskatchewan president and vice-chancellor toured Yorkton recently as part of an annual glad-handing effort aimed at boosting the school’s profile and funding.
The visit was basically three-pronged, he explained.
“We want to make sure we keep in touch with our alumni, graduates of the University of Saskatchewan and we have many in this part of the province,” he said.
“Secondly, we chat with donors, people who have donated to the university. Finally, we had meetings this morning with Parkland Regional College, we have partnerships with them already, a brand new nursing program, we’re in the second year on that and it will be a full four-year program.”
Barnhart also suggested more full degree programs could eventually be offered in Yorkton through the college.
“We’re having a look at a whole bunch of them,” he said. “Arts and sciences is clearly another area and we’re offering introductions to those now. The big issue on those is really the financing of them, if we can have enough people in a centre to justify a professor in the centre or the other way is by distance learning and we had a discussion with the regional college this morning about that.”
It could be a while in the making, however, as there are other factors in play.
“That’s not just the university of Saskatchewan and Parkland, it’s the provincial government and all the polytechniques. It’s complicated as many things are in post-secondary education. We’re working on it and I would very much like to see that happen.”
Barnhart has his own ties to the Yorkton area and the University of Saskatchewan. He was born and raised in Saltcoats and has three degrees from the university, including a Ph.D. in history. He is largely regarded as an expert on the Parliamentary process and has served as the clerk of the Canadian Senate and Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan.
He came to the office of the president of the university approximately a year ago when then-president Ilene Busch-Vishniac was fired amidst controversy over the wrongful firing and re-hiring of Robert Buckingham, the head of the School of Public Health who publicly questioned Bush-Vishniac’s budget-cutting plan.
Barnhart and his entourage also had discussions with the Sunrise Health Region while in Yorkton. In addition to partnering with Sunrise in nursing education, he is hoping to establish a residency program for physicians, something, he said, has worked very well in other rural settings.
“We were in Swift Current recently and talking with the residents there as part of the Swift Current Health Region and the key thing is that most, once they’ve had, they call it rural, I call it small city, but once they’ve had that experience in the rural or small city environment, they tend to stay in the rural or the small centres,” he explained.
This is something that does not just apply to doctors, though. Barnhart recognizes local skill development and personnel retention for rural areas is key in all kinds of professions.
“We’re trying very hard to take education where the students are because in many cases here they might be single parents, there’s child care issues or maybe they’re working and doing it part time and they can’t do that and also go to Saskatoon,” he said.
