Fired FNUC Official Weighs In On Censure Of School

Fired FNUC Official Weighs In On Censure Of School

Tuesday, December 02, 2008 at 15:38

 

 

A former administrator at the First Nations University of Canada says the school should adopt an all-chiefs task force report in order to escape its present difficulties.

 

Wes Stevenson says this past weekend’s censure of the school by the Canadian Association of University Teachers doesn’t bode well for the university’s future.

 

The association says it’s unhappy with the school’s governance structure, and wants it to sever ties with the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.

 

Stevenson says these issues would already have been answered if the FNUC had followed the recommendations outlined in the task force report when it was released in 2006.

 

He believes the chiefs within the province are going to have to pressure the FSIN before any major changes take place.

 

Stevenson, FNUC’s former vice-president of administration, was charged with fraud earlier this year.

 

He has filed a lawsuit claiming improper dismissal.

 

Meanwhile, an FNUC official is optimistic a solution will be found to resolve the school’s latest setback.

 

Al Ducharme says CAUT’s censure of the school is not a good situation — and it’s not good for the university’s reputation.

 

He says university officials tried to keep an open line of communication with the association — but couldn’t prevent this from happening.

 

Ducharme says they believe they’ve made good progress on the issues that were identified by the all-chiefs task force.