UNB students, staff await report on school's future

Faculty and students at the University of New Brunswick Saint John were bracing Friday for a much-anticipated provincial report that could see their school merge with a community college.

There are very real concerns on campus about a merger creating one single, polytechnic institute, said Eric Savoy, the UNB Saint John student union's external vice president.

"I see that our programs, if that were to occur, would be diminished," Savoy said. "It would be more specific and focused, and we wouldn't have that that broad range of educational opportunity."

Saint John Mayor Norm McFarlane said that while he supported the idea of the two schools working more closely together, lumping them together to form one institution would not be a step in the right direction.

"I do not know what the report says, but personally, I do not agree with them being one," he said, adding he's received 98 e-mails so far from concerned students, faculty and citizens who do not want a merger to happen.

University leaders in Fredericton and Saint John have assured students they'll do whatever is in their power to protect UNBSJ.

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'They have not told people not worry'
Still, the school's history department chairperson Joanna Everitt said she is more troubled by what provincial politicians have not been saying.

When a similar proposal to merge St. Thomas University in Fredericton with Mount Alison University in Sackville came up in the spring, the government was quick to issue statements to calm concerned staff and students, she noted.

That has not been the case this time around, she said.

"They have not told people not to worry, [to] just wait until the report comes out," she said. "Well, they took a strong stance on St. Thomas, saying St. Thomas was safe last May. Why haven't they done the same thing for UNBSJ?"

The province's commission on post-secondary education was to release its report at 10 a.m. in Fredericton.

The release of the report will be followed by four information sessions.

[url]http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2007/09/14/nbschool-merge.html[/url]