Aboriginal center counsellor will still be available: AEC chair

By Stuart Thomson

thom0757@algonquincollege.com

Amid continuing student discontent about the decision to move the Aboriginal guidance counsellor into the mainstream counselling section, the college’s faculty union has expressed support for students “trying desperately to keep access to their Aboriginal counsellor.”

The college and the Aboriginal Education Council (AEC) claim that aboriginal students at the college were consulted about the matter and that there is documentation to prove this but “none of that documentation has been shared with us,” said Jack Wilson, vice president of the union.

Wilson points to the initial reaction of the students as proof that no consultation was conducted, describing the mood as “anxious and hostile.”

The AEC claimed that a consultation was done and that the move was in response at a recent forum and in a communiqué addressed to Aboriginal students.

Wilson disputed this, calling the decision “unilateral” and said that the counsellor herself was not even consulted about the move. She is currently on leave and a new person has been installed in the meantime, although the contract will finish in early May.

Deborah Rowan-Legg, vice president of Student Services, said in an e-mailed statement that the move represented an expansion of services and that “the vacated space in the Mamidosewin Centre, the area where Aboriginal students can come together and meet is enlarged, as well as space being available for the regular visits of Elders."

Anita Tenasco, the chair of the AEC, said that “the counsellor will still be available to the centre” and would be routinely participating in cultural activities and providing input.

One member of the AEC expressed concern that adequate steps weren’t taken to consult the students and council members. The decision was made early in the fall and, although a discussion was planned “we never got a chance to go through with it,” said Rick Sanderson, the education counsellor at the Odawa Native Friendship Centre and member of the AEC. “(The council) did not have a recorded vote.”

As a lifelong counsellor himself, Sanderson expressed concern that moving the Aboriginal counsellor at Algonquin would be detrimental to Aboriginal students. “Counselling aboriginal students is different. That’s why that position was created in the first place.”

Tenasco had a different take. “Some students need the confidentiality that mainstream counselling provides,” she said. “Not all students want to be in a public setting to see a counsellor.”

Rowan-Legg disputed that sentiment, saying that “should (an aboriginal student) arrive in a crisis situation, they are assured of seeing someone immediately” and that counseling services “offers greater privacy and confidentiality of records.”

Extra significance has been placed on the role of Aboriginal counsellor due to the Aboriginal Education and Training Strategy instituted by the provincial government. The strategy calls for “retention activities to keep Aboriginal students engaged in their post-secondary studies, including counselling” and the most common kind of support has been to provide money for a full-time Aboriginal counsellor.

The college has plans to replace the counsellor in the centre with an events co-ordinator.

Sanderson called it a good idea but questioned the importance of an events co-ordinator compared to a dedicated counsellor.

“How does that increase retention of Aboriginal students?” he said.

The hasty nature of the move was a major point of distress for students. Christine King, a first-year community and justice services student who presented the AEC with the students’ petition at their last meeting recalled coming in one day and finding the office empty and the counsellor gone “like a thief in the night.”

“This came out of the blue,” said Wilson. “(The decision) was not well-conceived or communicated to the community.”

A grievance has been filed with the union by the counsellor for what Wilson calls the “intimidating” way that management conducted itself about the issue.