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Mohawk College
Premier delivers $9.2m for Mohawk apprentices
August 20, 2008 The Canadian Press More Hamilton-area students will get the skills they need to find good jobs with help from the Ontario government. The province is investing $9.2 million in a new centre dedicated to growing the number of skilled apprentices in Ontario’s burgeoning transportation industry. The Gerald Marshall Transportation Centre will house new equipment, labs and a shop able to accommodate up to three full-sized tractor trailers. Students will train for careers as auto mechanics, truck and coach technicians, and servicers. The building’s official opening is slated for September 2009. The centre is part of a larger renovation project that will transform Mohawk’s Stoney Creek campus into a major centre for skilled trades training and apprenticeships. Once complete, the new space will allow Mohawk to increase enrolment in skilled trades programs to 870 a year. It will also grow apprenticeship opportunities in the region by 35 per cent - or more than 3,500 students a year. "The skilled trades are the place to be. We have the jobs, but we need the people to fill them. Now, Mohawk College will be able to train more students to go onto fulfilling careers," said Premier Dalton McGuinty. "We’re investing in the skills and knowledge of our people so they can work in high-paying, skilled jobs that will strengthen our economy and improve everyone’s quality of life," said Ted McMeekin, MPP Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale. "This investment is great news for our community - it will create jobs in the short-term and help students develop the skills they need to succeed in the future," said Sophia Aggelonitis, MPP Hamilton Mountain. |
and yet..Fennell Campus is a huge hole which is timelocked in the 1970s and still nothing is changing there (as far as i know)
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I believe they are renovating the A-Wing, I know a bunch of classes/office space got relocated because of it. Think they are trying to renovate all hallways the same as the C-Wing on the main floor.
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please build some of this new stuff downtown for pete's sake. A new campus would be awesome.
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Metrolinx boss to be new Mohawk prez
Rob MasIsaac takes over Feb. 1, 2009 November 06, 2008 By Wade Hemsworth The Hamilton Spectator Former Burlington mayor and GTA transport chief Rob MacIsaac has a new job: president of Mohawk College. MacIsaac was confirmed as president this morning in a move that has taken many by surprise. He takes over Feb. 1, 2009. While he is considered an outsider to the college, MacIsaac is also broadly recognized as a strong leader and consensus builder whose profile and provincial connections could bode well for the college’s future. He appointment also raises questions about Hamilton’s aspirations for a light rail transit link across the city. The Burlington lawyer has been deeply involved in planning major rapid-transit projects across the GTA and Hamilton as chairman of Metrolinx, the province’s transportation planning agency. Because of his familiarity with Hamilton and good relationship with Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger, MacIsaac has been considered a key ally in the city’s aspirations to establish provincially-funded light rail transit links across the city, starting with an east-west line that would run from Eastgate Square to McMaster University. The link is considered critical to the city’s economic renewal, particulary in the lower city. MacIsaac hinted that Hamilton funding would surface in the latter years of the 2009-13 budget, coming this fall. MacIsaac will replace MaryLynn West-Moynes, who declined to accept a second- five-year term as president so she could return to Durham region and be closer to her family there. She is to become vice-president for external relations at the Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa. Her Mohawk term expires at the end of this month. MacIsaac was bornin 1962. He graduated from the University of Waterloo with an econmics degree in 1984 before studing law at the University of Western Otnario, where he graduated in 1987. MacIsaac was elected to Burliington council in 1991. He was elected mayor in 1997 and served three terms, ending in 2006, before becoming the first chairman of Metrolinx. He lives in Burlington with his wife Anne. They have two children, Sarah and Catherine. |
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This man is a great leader and would make a GREAT Mayor for Hamilton! |
MacIsaac gives new boost to Mohawk
February 02, 2009 Wade Hemsworth The Hamilton Spectator http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/505819 The way Rob MacIsaac sees it, this is Hamilton's time, and that makes it Mohawk College's time. The way Mohawk College sees it, this is Rob MacIsaac's time. Today is MacIsaac's first day on the job as Mohawk's seventh president, when he'll tour its main campuses in Hamilton, Stoney Creek and Brantford, introducing himself to faculty, staff and students. They'll be meeting a man who is known to be understated but intense, a quick study and a consensus-building leader who has already excelled in several disciplines. He is an outsider to the college system, but highly connected to the circles of government and business where colleges find funding and jobs for their students. He brings to the job what he calls an "unshakable confidence" in the future of Hamilton, and sees Mohawk playing an important role in restoring prosperity to the city and its neighbours. Those who know him say it likely won't be long before he starts bringing change to the college. MacIsaac has spent the last month studying documents and reports and meeting with college and other leaders. "My best approach to going into situations calmly is to make sure that I've done my homework," he said. "When I'm sitting at a table, I like to be the guy who's thought about all the questions before I got there." MacIsaac says Mohawk already has momentum, solid management and academic depth,and he is eager to help the college reach higher by exploring new forms of teaching and bringing its aging facilities up to date. But meeting those goals will require skill and diplomacy. Economic upheaval is expected to drive more students to the college for training and retraining, just as the same upheaval shrivels the revenues of the provincial government -- its primary funder. MacIsaac, a curler and golfer who likes to cook and play music when he can, turns 47 this month. MacIsaac comes to the job with an impressive resume. He's a lawyer who became a Burlington city councillor, then served three terms as that city's mayor. He was an architect of Ontario's Smart Growth strategy and its Greenbelt plan. Most recently, he was in charge of setting up what is now called Metrolinx -- the provincial agency responsible for planning transportation across the GTA and Hamilton over the next 25 years, which finalized its $50-billion blueprint last September. Last summer, MacIsaac was watching one of his two teenage daughters play soccer in Brantford when his cellphone rang. It was a consultant for the college, wondering if he might think about standing as a candidate to replace MaryLynn West-Moynes, who had declined a second five-year term as Mohawk president to return to her family home in Durham region. The idea of leading the college intrigued MacIsaac, who believes education is critical to building cities. "The college can be a catalyst to getting the city from where it is today to where it it's going to be," he said. "People should be so excited about what the possibilities are here in Hamilton. It has such great bones: the architecture, the clusters that have started. It already is a great place, but it can be such a special place within the region moving forward, and I just think it's a matter of time." The college is in the perfect place, he says, to supply the knowledge and the personnel to convert Hamilton's heavy manufacturing base into a broader, more flexible local economy, where technology and health care join old and new manufacturing to pull the city up. Terry Cooke, the former chairman of Hamilton-Wentworth region, sits with MacIsaac on the board of the Canadian Urban Institute. He admits being surprised by his friend's "non-traditional career move". But the more he thought about it, the more MacIsaac's decision made sense. Cooke believes MacIsaac could do for Mohawk what Peter George has done for McMaster by developing relationships between the university, governments, industry leaders and philanthropists. "In the course of a career of public service, this is one of the places where he could leave a lasting mark," Cooke said. "In a time in which the need to deal with funders -- particularly the province -- is going to be critical, he's probably better positioned than anybody I can think of." One reason MacIsaac believes Hamilton can grow quickly through education is Mohawk's positive working relationship with McMaster University, with cross-pollination already happening in nursing and technology. "When you look across the province, there is a fair bit of sniping between the university and the college sector," MacIsaac said. "That's not something that I think exists between our two institutions. It's a pretty special relationship that we have here, and it's one we have to nurture." MacIsaac says it's past time to update Mohawk's facilities -- especially its central campus on Fennell Avenue West -- by building new spaces for students to gather and interact, and literally turning the main entrance around so it faces Fennell instead of a parking lot. "This is our flagship, and I want it to be something that the city, the alumni, the students and the faculty are proud of," he said. It won't be long before the new president starts taking action, Cooke predicts. "In everything I've watched him do, he's cautious initially and careful to gather intelligence from a broad range of sources, but once he gets a sense of what needs to be done, he's not afraid of taking on institutional reform." MacIsaac absorbs and analyses new information very quickly, says Michael Fenn, a former Burlington city manager, provincial deputy minister and Hamilton-Wentworth CAO who is now CEO of Metrolinx, where MacIsaac will remain chairman of the board. He said MacIsaac simultaneously establishes a broad horizon while concentrating on customer service, a rare dual focus that produces strong results. "He's very good at translating things into what they mean to the person you're ultimately serving," Fenn said. "He's one of these leaders who leads from the middle rather than from the front," Fenn said, "and I think that makes him much more effective." Those are qualities that pushed MacIsaac to the top of the list said Allan Greve, chairman of Mohawk's selection committee. "We were looking for a leader. Hopefully we're going to see Mohawk at the top rung of all the colleges in the province. That's why we hired him." |
That's awesome news for Mohawk. It is odd that the main entrance faces the inside of the campus, and the facilities are pretty aged, so it's good that he's focusing on those two issues
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outside of the i-wing..that whole campus should be razed and rebuilt...
or at least gutted and completely renoed. |
As far as renovations, it would also be nice for Mohawk to look and feel more like a college instead of a high school with lockers lining the walls and a giant cafeteria.
I'm not saying the programs and faculty aren't very good, but the facility itself sends no visual cues to incoming students that it's a place to gain adult skills, responsibilities, or perspectives. |
I always thought Mohawk College was a huge high school. Same setup.
But they have done some nice renovation lately, main floor of G wing and the tv room. The Student Centre is tiny. I graduated before the renovation to the A wing so I don't know what that is like. |
Mohawk is very similar to the Ontario colleges I've seen (St. Clair, Lambton, and Fanshawe)
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A moment later, two students carrying trays walked in the same way and a guy who looked like a security guard physically barred their path, ordering them to go around to the entrance - and not to bring in any food unless they wanted to pay for it a second time. When people complain about the vagaries of aging, events like this help to remind me of how much I resented being a second-class citizen when I was still a late teen / young adult. |
Whoa whoa whoa hold up....you don't have a cellphone? haha
I used to cut through the cafe all the time. My locker was near the cafe. |
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+1 for no cellphone
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But yeah Mohawk does seem like a giant highschool... although they have taken some proactive steps in recent years. I think the student area is really nice. |
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Last week I cancelled my service of 10 years with Telus. I'm now cell phone free, at least for the time being. |
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My wife and I share a cell phone for long trips and emergencies. None of our friends have the number. I don't even know what the number is actually. We keep it turned off and barely ever use it.
I really wish our society would establish reasonable norms and etiquette for cell phone use. I can't stand all the people who constantly walk around talking on the phone or texting each other. It's impossible to have a conversation with some people because they are constantly getting text messages and the rings are annoying fragments of songs. I really hate the McMaster Library, students think that they can pop into the stacks to have a conversation on their cell phone. Buses are even worse, how about sitting beside some idiot talking about nothing for 45 minutes on a GO bus while you're trying to read. Don't get me started on those personal music ipod things, half the world is tuned out of reality because they're wearing headphones. |
I rarely use my cell either. Only for emergencies as you said. And yes for most of the time it's turned off too.
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I'm close to my cellphone especially with facebook on it. I also have an ipod touch. One day I wanna get the iphone to combine the ipod touch and phone.
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Add in applications that let you track the physical location of friends on your cell network ("Hey, crhayes is right around the corner from me; I'll text him to see if he wants to meet for a coffee") and the need for planning - an essentially top-down activity with considerable bureaucratic overhead - simply goes away. Quote:
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In fairness, it doubles as a quick and dirty microphone if I need to interview something. :) |
I'm in my twenties, and I bitterly hold out against owning a cellphone as well - a summer contract job a few years ago that came with a company cellphone cured me of any desire to get one soon.
I work with teenagers, and it's amazing how much they rise to the occasion when treated like adults and incrementally given responsibility. They're not this strange "third" stage between childhood and adulthood like the marketing niches that have been created would have you believe -- they're children growing into adults, and being a teenager is when you're a bit of both. To steer the conversation back to Mohawk - a building that looks, smells, and feels like high school does nothing to steer those in their late teens/early twenties towards adulthood. I haven't been to many college campuses, but the ones I was thinking of are certain parts of a Niagara College campus (I can't remember exactly where. I took a coaching theory course there several years ago, when it was still brand-new - it looks like an office building) The Mohawk IAHS campus at Mac also makes excellent use of light and the lockers less of a focal point. |
And this also comes to another issue as well. The younger ones are relying onto all this new tech stuff and losing their skills to deal with person to person connection and dealing with the public in general in many ways.
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Petro Canada Mobility has no monthly fee and is pay as you go. A $100 card lasts a full year!
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Anyone who hates a mobile phone hasn't had internet on their phone. Unlimited anyplace, anytime internet on my phone makes me disturbingly happy. I even have sat on trains and looked at this forum on my e71. How dedicated (sad) am I? |
I love my ipod touch more than the cellphone so if it was combined I would be a very happy person. I just have to wait for my contract to end.
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If you're going to be stuck with a phone for 2 years, you want to make sure it's a phone you want to be stuck with for 2 years! |
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It's a beautiful college nowadays. at mohawk..we can't even get a new gym for pete's sakes. |
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Mohawk pitches $80m makeover
Renewal to raise profile of Fennell campus March 25, 2009 Wade Hemsworth The Hamilton Spectator http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/536393 Mohawk College's central campus could be in for an $80-million renewal starting as early as this summer. At the same time, a similar volume of renovation and building will be going on at McMaster University, if federal-provincial infrastructure projects are approved, possibly next month. Rob MacIsaac, who took over as Mohawk president in February, has scheduled a series of "extraordinary" meetings to pitch his proposal to the college's board of governors over the next month. "We think the Fennell campus really needs a renewal," he said in an interview. "We think that investing money into this campus will make a big difference in terms of the quality of education we can deliver to students." The Mohawk project would involve renovation and new building to update and expand the 42-year-old Fennell campus, which is home to 7,000 full-time students. The work would also turn the face of the campus toward Fennell Avenue, completing one of MacIsaac's early goals of raising the college's physical profile in the Hamilton landscape. If the project is approved, MacIsaac said he hopes the federal government would provide $40 million in infrastructure funding. Colleges and universities across Ontario have until Friday to submit shovel-ready infrastructure proposals for consideration by the federal government, which would provide 50 per cent funding, with provincial and private matching. Approvals for the economic stimulus projects are expected to start flowing as early as next month, with all approvals anticipated by the end of May. At McMaster, president Peter George said several renovation and building projects would be on the university's list of proposals. Since the list has yet to be finalized, he was reluctant to name them, though he did say the university has $180 million in deferred maintenance, such as energy conservation refitting and updates to laboratories and classrooms. "We'd be delighted with any support we receive, and make the most of it," he said. George said he knows times are challenging, but remains hopeful that tomorrow's budget will bring infrastructure money and operating relief from Queen's Park. "Education is still a high priority for them," he said. "Even in these tough economic times, they see it as a good investment in future prosperity." In advance of the provincial budget, Premier Dalton McGuinty committed $27.5 billion to infrastructure funding this week, including nearly $4 billion for education infrastructure. The Council of Ontario Universities says two-thirds of university facilities are more than 30 years old, many of them overdue for maintenance and renovation, while growing enrolment and new technology are driving demand for new construction. George said he hoped tomorrow's budget would bring at least one-time relief to cover operating costs. McMaster and other universities have been hit hard by the economic downturn, which has hurt the investments that feed their operations and pension funds. "There's no doubt that we could -- as could all universities -- benefit from some operating relief in the short term," he said. |
Mohawk College president eager for overhaul
April 09, 2009 Wade Hemsworth The Hamilton Spectator http://www.thespec.com/News/article/546076 When Rob MacIsaac became president of Mohawk College two months ago, his friends said he wouldn’t waste much time. They were correct. At his official installation ceremony Thursday, MacIsaac, 47, laid out aggressive plans to modernize the college’s main campus with a major overhaul, reform the delivery of education, build new partnerships with universities and establish a separate Mohawk corporation to put its applied research to work. After donning the president’s robes, he praised Mohawk’s traditions of serving students, building the community and establishing strong partnerships. “But I want to say there is also so much more that we can do,” he said. “Looking ahead, there are so many exciting, interesting and valuable opportunities that Mohawk can explore and capitalize on.” MacIsaac is planning an $80 million renovation to the Fennell campus — home to 7,000 of Mohawk's 10,000 full-time students — with applications to the federal and provincial governments for infrastructure funding that would pay for most of the work. “This 40-year-old building we are sitting in is a tribute to mid-20th-century architectural sensibility,” he said. “We would like to bring the spaces and the architecture here firmly into the 21st century.” Citing the college’s project in building a prototype for a national electronic health records system, he said Mohawk would expand on its “brilliant beginning” in applied research by advancing into clean energy and advanced materials. While pure research will remain the province of universities, he said, Mohawk will find new ways to put research into practice by creating Mohawk College Enterprises, which will work with corporate partners in training and economic development. “This company will help drive our economy by helping local companies create supercharged workforces,” he said. The new president said it’s also time to overhaul the way Mohawk delivers education to students, casting off what he described as a manufacturing model based on Henry Ford’s ideas in favour of a “mass-customization model” closer to the lines of Dell Computers, where customers tell the company what they want and Dell builds it for them. “Why can’t we do the same in education?” he asked. “Why can’t we provide student-centric post-secondary education that adapts itself to recognize that students have different backgrounds, different strengths and different personal circumstances?” Building on its formal partnerships with McMaster University in nursing and technology, he said Mohawk is planning new links with Wilfrid Laurier University in Brantford, where both institutions have campuses, and with the Burlington campus of Australia-based Charles Sturt University, and Redeemer University College in Ancaster. MacIsaac is the seventh president in Mohawk’s 42-year history. He is a lawyer who previously served three terms as Burlington mayor before deciding not to seek re-election, later becoming an architect of Ontario's Smart Growth strategy and its Greenbelt plan. Before becoming president at Mohawk, he was the founding director of Metrolinx, the province’s transportation planning agency for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. He continues to serve as Metrolinx chair. Among the audience of Mohawk students, graduates, faculty and supporters were MacIsaac’s wife Anne and two daughters Sarah and Catherine. The formal installation ceremony was to be followed by a reception and a dinner, with the day ending in a performance by MacIsaac’s rock band, Slow Monday. |
http://media.hamiltonspectator.topsc...1dd6b7c53.jpeg
An $84m facelift for Mohawk College hopes for funding to update look, expand capacity April 23, 2009 Wade Hemsworth The Hamilton Spectator http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/553337 If it's a little hard to find the face of Mohawk College's main campus today, there should be little doubt after the Fennell campus gets a planned $84 million facelift. The plans -- subject to government funding approvals -- include a four-storey, 180,000 square-foot building facing Fennell Avenue and a new facade for the building next door, where the word "Mohawk" in storey-high letters would leave no doubt about where you are. If approved, nearly $59 million of the renewal budget would go toward the new building, which would fit between the existing glass-fronted I Wing, and the older A Wing, closest to West 5th Street. The new building would sit closer to Fennell Avenue than the others, giving the college the bolder street presence that new president Rob MacIsaac had identified as an early priority. The new building would add critical new space to the campus, where limited capacity is preventing the college from keeping up with growing demand. The changes would allow Mohawk to increase overall full-time enrolment by 1,560 students, or nearly 16 per cent, and continuing education enrolment by about 4,000 registrants, or 10 per cent. Most of the rest of the renewal money would go toward renovating 70,000 square feet of space, tackling deferred maintenance work and building wireless capacity on campus. MacIsaac shared details of the proposal with the Spectator's editorial board this week, where he said it is important for Mohawk to have a "fresh face" to continue competing for the best students. Mohawk is asking the federal and provincial governments to put up 85 per cent of the funding under their infrastructure programs and plans to raise the remainder. If the $84 million package is approved, renovation work could begin this summer and new construction could start in the fall. The work would create as many as 350 direct and indirect jobs over the next two years. During his wide-ranging remarks to the editorial board, MacIsaac said Mohawk's Brantford campus would be next in line for renewal. He said he would prefer to move the Brantford campus from an industrial park off the Wayne Gretzky Parkway to that city's downtown. Post-secondary education is already providing a significant catalyst for economic renewal in Brantford. MacIsaac said Mohawk is working through a $2 million deficit on its $150 million operating budget, but expects the college can avoid layoffs at least for this year. |
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Yep! They are great.
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They're coming!......
Media Advisory - Ontario boosts infrastructure funding in Hamilton TORONTO, May 28 /CNW/ - The Hon. John Milloy, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, the Hon. George Smitherman, Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, and Sophia Aggelonitis, MPP for Hamilton Mountain, will make an important announcement regarding provincial infrastructure investments at Mohawk College. DATE: Friday, May 29, 2009 TIME: 2:15 p.m. LOCATION: Mohawk College of Applied Arts & Technology 135 Fennell Avenue West, Hamilton Room: i131 & Rotunda PARKING: Parking is available in lot P14. |
Ontario Government To Fund Mohawk College Expansion
McGuinty Government Provides More Jobs And Education For Hamilton TORONTO, May 29 /CNW/ - NEWS Sophia Aggelonitis, MPP for Hamilton Mountain, today announced a $20 million investment to provide more advanced technology training at Mohawk College. This investment will help Mohawk College expand enrolment and applied research at its Fennell Campus to provide more opportunities for students to train as highly skilled technicians and technologists in engineering technology, health sciences, human services and digital communications. This announcement is part of Ontario's strategy to ensure that every college and university benefits from investments made this week in the province's campuses. The governments of Canada and Ontario this week announced joint funding of approximately $1.6 billion for 49 projects through the federal Knowledge Infrastructure Program (KIP) and the 2009 Ontario budget. Ontario is allocating $55 million through the Strategic Capital Infrastructure Program to colleges and universities that did not receive funding through the KIP selection process with the federal government. Ontario is also investing $40 million to be invested in all colleges and universities for maintenance and campus renewal. |
Mohawk expansion to be done in stages
July 06, 2009 Wade Hemsworth The Hamilton Spectator http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/594810 Mohawk College is shifting gears on its ambitious plans for expanding and renovating its Fennell campus. After being shut out in its quest for federal infrastructure funding in late May, the college is still planning to do much of the same work, but to stage the improvements over a longer period by taking a modular approach. The first stage will see a two- storey building facing Fennell Avenue next to the glass-fronted I-wing, and at least the beginning of significant renovations to existing buildings. The new building, to be built to stringent environmental standards, is to combine a new library and 10 classrooms and be connected to adjacent buildings by covered walkways. The new library and learning space will be situated so that it becomes a primary entrance to the college. "Our presence on Fennell will be much more noticeable once this building is finished," said college president Rob MacIsaac. "We'll be presenting a modern face to the street, which I think will raise our profile significantly and add to the urban landscape." The $15-million, 30,000-square-foot building is expected to be complete by late 2010 and open by January 2011. The college will consolidate its student services in the space now occupied by the library and along a corridor that will attach the old library to the new building. Mohawk had sought federal and provincial education infrastructure funding for most of its $84-million master plan, only to be surprised to not receive any federal contribution when Ottawa and Queen's Park teamed up to grant $1.5 billion to Ontario universities and colleges. The province came up with $20 million from a separate fund it created to help the handful of colleges and universities that didn't receive anything from the federal government. MacIsaac said the first stage of the new plan, which is also to include renovations to other buildings at the Fennell campus, will be worth a minimum of $25 million and possibly as much as $40 million. "I'm very happy that the province has enabled us to go forward with a plan. I'm grateful for the money they gave us," he said. "We continue to think Mohawk represents a missed opportunity for the federal government in terms of investment, but we're going to make the best of what we have." |
Minister Millroy will be at Mohawk College Monday morning.
Then he'll be at McMaster to make the Early Researcher Awards program announcement, funding for research. |
The Centre for Entrepreneurship, Learning & Innovation
http://mohawkmatters.typepad.com/.a/...504453c970b-pi |
The groundbreaking takes place Monday, August 31st at 9 a.m. outdoors between the A Wing and i-Wing at the Fennell Campus.
The cornerstone of the renewal project is a new, 3-level Centre for Entrepreneurship, Learning & Innovation to be constructed next to A Wing and facing Fennell Avenue. The Centre, constructed to the highest environmental standards for energy efficiency, will be home to a new library, classrooms and learning commons. The building will also serve as the new front door to the campus. The Centre for Entrepreneurship, Learning & Innovation is expected to open in January 2011. Mohawk will invest $30 million in the Fennell Campus renewal project, with new construction and major renovations being carried out during the next 18 months at Mohawk's largest and oldest campus. |
Mohawk needs a tower. If it keeps building these 3-floor wings they'll soon realize how land-locked they are
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Hey everyone just as a heads up, the tower crane is going up at Mohawk this morning.
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Mohawk covets Expositor building
November 25, 2009 Wade Hemsworth The Hamilton Spectator http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/679004 Mohawk College is planning to move its Brantford campus to the Brantford Expositor building, a downtown landmark and home to the newspaper for the past 114 years. The college said it has yet to complete the purchase of the 45,000-square-foot building, but hopes to have a deal in place soon, with an eye to having 2,000 students there as early as September. "It would be a great flagship for Mohawk in Brantford," said spokesperson Jay Robb. He said the college needs support from the federal, provincial and city governments to make the $10-million downtown campus a reality. Mohawk is looking for government help to cover the price of the Dalhousie Street property, renovations to the building and the purchase of at least one other nearby property that would give Mohawk room to expand to 4,000 students, compared to 2,000 now studying at its Elgin Street campus in an industrial subdivision. Talks between the city and the college are taking place in-camera because they concern the purchase of property, but Brantford Mayor Mike Hancock said in an interview he hopes for a resolution within the next week. The mayor said the city is eager to reach a deal since post-secondary education has given so much momentum to Brantford's downtown redevelopment over the past 10 years. "If it's possible to pull all the pieces together, we strongly support Mohawk's move to downtown Brantford," Hancock said. "We think it would be good for everyone." Wilfrid Laurier and Nipissing universities now have 2,800 students downtown, with both planning to grow enrolment in Brantford. Between Mohawk and the universities, there could be as many as 19,000 students studying in downtown Brantford within the next 25 years. By comparison, McMaster University is home to about 20,000 undergraduates. "The dynamics are moving faster than we even had anticipated just a few years ago," the mayor said. Mohawk's Brantford plans include creating educational collaborations with Laurier and Nipissing that would parallel links the college has built with McMaster in such areas as nursing and engineering technology. The Expositor would move its operations to a new location better suited to its modern needs, the newspaper said in an editorial. The college is planning to make Brantford the home of its faculty of community and urban studies, which would include programs in policing, early childhood education, recreation, child and youth worker and personal support worker training. |
great move for Brantford
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Brantford may lose Mohawk campus
March 03, 2010 Wade Hemsworth The Hamilton Spectator http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/731759 Mohawk College is considering moving its main Brantford campus to Hamilton. After declaring Brantford's existing Elgin Street campus unsustainable and being shut out in a bid for government funding to move downtown, the college faces a decision that could lead to 1,800 students moving to Hamilton instead. "Where it currently stands is that the situation is up in the air and we need to look at all options," said Mohawk spokesperson Jay Robb. "We do know that we cannot continue to teach and serve students out of the Elgin campus." The possibility of losing the 39-year-old campus is "alarming," said Brant MP Phil McColeman, who said he had not been aware of the college's move-it-or-lose-it position. Mohawk's board of governors has asked senior administrators to draw up a list of Brantford options to discuss before summer. The list will include the possibility of moving students, staff and faculty now at the Elgin campus to Mohawk's main campus on Fennell Avenue in Hamilton, where a $30-million expansion and renovation is under way -- funded by a $20-million provincial grant and $10 million in private donations. The list will not include the option of staying at Elgin Street, in an industrial park just off the Wayne Gretzky Parkway, which the college says is too far from the amenities students want. Mohawk's preferred option has long been to move to downtown Brantford, where it would be closer to post-secondary partners and other services and where it would aid in rebuilding the core. Police foundations is the cornerstone program at the Elgin campus. "Staying at Elgin is a non-starter. We cannot keep students there," Robb said. "We need a campus that's as good as the profs that teach there, and we just don't have it at Elgin." McColeman said he has worked hard to help Mohawk move to Brantford's post-secondary district downtown, but doesn't consider Elgin to be unsustainable. "If they've said that Elgin Street's not viable, that's the first I've ever heard that." That's alarming," he said. "I'd think that the growth in student population in recent years would indicate that it was more than viable." Robb said an existing downtown Brantford satellite called the Odeon campus could be expanded to 400 students from the current 300 to minimize inconvenience to Brantford residents studying in that city. As it stands, only 28 per cent of students studying at Mohawk's Brantford sites live in Brantford, with most of the remaining 72 per cent commuting from Hamilton, Robb said. Mohawk had been pursuing a plan to move to the Brantford Expositor building on Dalhousie Street, which would have placed students among others from Laurier and Nipissing universities, which already have downtown campuses. The college has been developing collaborative programs with Nipissing and Laurier in anticipation of moving downtown. To make the $10-million move, Mohawk had declared it would need help from the federal, provincial and municipal governments. The federal government has rejected Mohawk's request for $5 million from its Southern Ontario Development Program. The college had asked for $1.5 million from the province and assistance from the city, but not being able to negotiate a deal with the city by the end of 2009 also brought an end to negotiations with the province, the college said. "Without all three, the move just cannot happen," Robb said. "The college does not have the finances to do the move on our own." McColeman said there had been a "huge oversubscription" to the federal program Mohawk had been counting on, with the vast majority of applicants being rejected. He said the compressed timing required by the program had worked against the college. McColeman said that losing most of Mohawk's Brantford presence would be a blow to the city, especially to the momentum that education has given to its downtown rejuvenation. "It's a huge part of our community and has been for a long time. I will do everything I can personally to try to influence (Mohawk) to stay in Brantford," McColeman said. "To lose them would be a huge loss to this community. I'll certainly advocate strongly and have advocated strongly that they not only stay in the community but grow the campus here." |
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