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MOOSE JAW — Following the release on June 6 of Provincial Auditor Tara Clemett’s 2023 report, MooseJawToday.com spoke with Dr. Larry Rosia, president and CEO of Sask Polytech, for his response to Clemett’s assessment of the school’s Indigenous student policies.

Clemett evaluated Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s processes for supporting the success of Indigenous students and made four recommendations based on her findings.

“I thank, and Saskatchewan Polytechnic thanks, the Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan for the report and for the recommendations,” Dr. Rosia said. “Many of the recommendations coincide with what our Indigenous strategy is currently working on with their next five-year plan.

“We’ve made some great strides in the first five years, and this sort of feedback will only help improve student success moving forward.”

The report recognizes several initiatives that Sask Polytech has made with the aim of increasing Indigenous student success rates, but Clemett also noted that the school has not established thresholds for investigating fluctuations in key performance measures.

As an example, Clemett said that Indigenous program enrolments fell by almost 30% between 2019 and 2021.

“We expected Sask Polytech to document its evaluation of the reason for the decline, and establish actions to help improve enrolment. It has not done so,” the Provincial Auditor’s office said in the release.

“Reducing disparities in educational outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students will support more equitable outcomes in attaining higher education,” Clemett said, “as well as lessen gaps in their employment earnings and overall success.”

Clemett’s other recommendations were for Sask Polytech to:

• Expand performance measures’ targets to evaluate whether its strategies support Indigenous student success. There are no targets around Indigenous student enrolment and program retention rates, with both measures declining since 2019.
• Conduct ongoing Indigenous community engagement and consultation to encourage enrolment and to report results on its Indigenous student successes.
• Verify Indigenous identity of staff in Indigenous-designated positions beyond using only self-identification.

“I don’t take [these recommendations] as criticisms. I think they are opportunities and feedback for us to continue to improve,” Dr. Rosia said. “We’ll be graduating probably 5,000 students this year, and our employment rate is at 96 per cent. And 95 per cent of our graduates are staying in Saskatchewan and working in Saskatchewan, so, all is good.

“In our last five-year plan, we’ve seen some real improvements in our Indigenous students success. We’ve closed the completion gap by 10 percentage points, between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. I’m really proud this year that our Indigenous employment rate is 94 per cent, and that’s up from 84 per cent. We’ve got more students, once they’re enrolled, graduating and getting jobs now than we ever have.”

‘Gutting’ of Indigenous Student Centre at Moose Jaw campus

The Provincial Auditor’s report comes on the heels of a growing buzz at the school alleging  had an oversized impact on the Indigenous Student Centre.

MooseJawToday.com has independently confirmed with sources at the school that two members of the Indigenous Students Centre had been given notice. 

Sources said staff and students were disheartened by the layoffs in the department and that it was a huge loss to the campus’ students. 

Rosia would not answer specific questions about the layoffs and reiterated Sask Polytech’s prepared statement from April that “Out of respect for employees, we do not share positions, departments, or programs impacted.”

Nevertheless, he reassured anyone concerned that there will be no impact on the supports offered to Indigenous students.

“The important part is that our Indigenous Students Centre is not closed down,” Rosia said firmly. “Indigenous students will have all the supports that they’ve had in the past and we’ll continue to support our Indigenous students on an ongoing basis.

“Indigenous students at the Moose Jaw campus will have assistance as needed from the Indigenous Strategy Group, with career planning, with funding, housing, childcare, and much more — the help that they need.”