Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (SIAST)
SIAST put in place an Education Equity (EE) Program over ten years ago. At each campus there was an
Education Equity committee and representatives from those campus committees sat on the SIAST-wide
Education Equity committee, which operated under the direction of the SIAST Education Equity Coordinator.
The SIAST wide committee oversaw the allocation of special projects and events. SIAST still commits over 1% of its annual operating budget to Education Equity projects. The position of Education Equity Coordinator and her support person was recently eliminated, since the process is working well and no longer needs a separately funded position to run the Education Equity program. SIAST recently created an Aboriginal Council which has replaced the EE Committee. The Aboriginal Council has a broader scope and includes faculty, staff and students.
The EE Program has been instrumental in encouraging Aboriginal students to self-identify, and as a general rule, Aboriginal students at SIAST self identify because they realize that it is to their advantage to do so in order to access services. The students have developed trust and realize it is not used against them in any way if they self-identify. SIAST has now established special Aboriginal counsellors at all four campuses because the numbers warrant this. If students do not self identify, and there are not sufficient numbers of students, SIAST cannot justify the level of staffing and services could be cut. As part of the EE program, SIAST has set target participation goals (12.4% overall, and 25% at the Prince Albert campus). In 2003-04 SIAST had 18% Aboriginal participation in total.
In consideration of Aboriginal people’s goals of Aboriginal control of education and participation in curriculum design, the study tried to get a sense of how colleges and institutes, both mainstream and Aboriginal, receive input from Aboriginal leaders for college/institute planning processes and structures and program and curriculum development. Colleges and institutes identified a number of different structures and approaches for ensuring that Aboriginal leaders from their regions contribute and provide direction for the planning, development and delivery of Aboriginal programs and services.
A key approach to ensuring Aboriginal input into colleges’ and institutes’ planning processes is through Aboriginal representation on college and institute Boards of Governors. Seven mainstream institutions indicated they have one Aboriginal Board member. The boards of colleges and institutes which serve mainly Aboriginal learners, such as the University College of the North and Nunavut Arctic College, are for the most part composed of Aboriginal members. Aboriginal institutes such as Nicola Valley Institute of Technology and SIIT have boards composed exclusively of Aboriginal leaders and community members. Aboriginal board members are drawn from Elders from Aboriginal communities, representatives from First Nations Bands, Métis and Aboriginal organizations, and Aboriginal industry representatives. The colleges in the territories also have regional Aboriginal representatives to ensure input is provided from all the regions of the territories.