An instructor at Simon Fraser University is in complete shock after finding out the university is cutting its Aboriginal University Transition Program (AUTP).
Natalie Knight, a session instructor for the program, said it blends Indigenous knowledge with traditional academics.
“It also supports aboriginal students who may have had adverse experiences in the education system, before entering into post-secondary,” Knight explained.
In addition to academic courses, instructors and staff support students managing homelessness, addiction issues, abuse, and low incomes, according to the SFU instructor.
Transition program faculty members received the news last week through an email from the SFU’s academics office, which states low enrolment is the reason for discontinuing the program.
Knight said although registration is capped at 12 students enrolment has been declining, in the past year only nine students joined.
However, without the program Knight argued SFU no longer has any Indigenous-centred program.
“Alongside the challenge of academic excellence, AUTP’s students deal with the wide-ranging impacts of colonialism in their daily lives,” she said.
“Considering where we stand in 2017, and the responsibility of higher education institutions to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations, the timing of SFU’s cut to AUTP is nothing short of shocking.”
According to the university’s website, it’s “currently taking a pause to explore new approaches and re-envision” the program.
@ashwadhwani
ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca
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