Georgian College Closing Orillia Campus
By John Swartz
Georgian College issued a press release Friday morning saying the Orillia campus would be closing at the end of the current school year and consolidating programs into their Barrie campus. At the same time the released said there is a potential buyer for the Orillia property.
The decision was made Thursday evening by the board of governors.
Colleges and universities have been under pressure this past year because of two failed government policies at the provincial and federal levels. One was funding cutbacks by the province beginning in 2018 following the turnover from the Liberals to the Conservatives. The answer suggested was to make up the difference in funding shortfall by increasing admissions of international students which almost all colleges did.
The other, the hue and cry from the opposition in Ottawa about increased immigration and allowing rapidly increased numbers student visa. The increase began in 2004, nearly doubling the number of international students by 2014, which did not slow down. The number of visas issued this year was lowered by 10% of the 2024 limit, which was lower than 2023’s limit.
“The abruptness of the changes and the depth of the impact of the changes were even greater than the original intention as they were being announced by the federal government,” said Georgian president and CEO, Kevin Weaver. While declining enrollment, domestic and international was being considered, the depth of immigration cuts was not. “No, not to that level, whatsoever.”
“International enrollment was an important element for colleges like Georgian. Yes there’s a revenue to it; there’s no denying there’s increased revenue. But also, we were decreasing domestic enrollment for about a decade straight, so international enrollment is also a way to ensure we have graduates to support the labour market across our catchment area. That was always the impetus for enrollment and managing enrollment is really focused on labour market.”
College and university administrations have been in the news for more than a year warning the province things were getting dyer. It wasn’t just routine funding that had been cut; the province also lowered tuition and then for several years froze them at the cut levels. Meanwhile inflation continued.
“There has been an admission the current funding model is broken for Ontario colleges. The provincial government has started a review of that. We are optimistic we will see some changes made since the reduction of tuition and frozen of tuition and a steady grant for a number of years is no longer sustainable.”
Georgian established programming in Orillia in 1969 and opened the Memorial Avenue campus in 1980. Up to the pandemic all types of enrollment were increasing annually to about 2,000 students at the Orillia Campus. That figure has declined since to 1300 students. Georgian also began cutting teaching staff this year and the Orillia campus has about 200 teaching, administrative and support staff. The latest total enrollment across all Georgian campuses is 14,244 in 2021.
The latest financial data available for the college is from the 23/24 school year. Revenues from all sources was $418 million, against expenditures of $387.7 million, leaving a $30.3 million surplus.
“We know as we project ahead what our deficit is this year. We know it only gets worse if we don’t take measures to try and mitigate it. Ultimately that’s what this about,” Weaver said.
Georgian is was facing a deficit of $45 million for the 26/26 school year, and a further $15 to $20 million for the 26/27 school year, according to an online message from Weaver. This corresponds to a drop in enrollment of international students of 45% (3,200 students) compared to figures from 23/24.
“Ultimately it comes down to the economics. This is not a decision we would have wanted to make by any means. Financially, what we need to do is find ways to reduce operating costs. The programs are doing well, we just have too large a footprint and our operating costs against funding and tuition are just not sustainable.”
“As tough as it is, this gives us a little more forward momentum on the path to sustainability. It will alone not be enough. We do definitely need more funding from the provincial government and we are still going to have to look at other facets of our operations to continue to reduce expenses.”
Earlier this year Georgian suspended operations at their Collingwood campus. The announcement of today also includes closing their Muskoka campus in Bracebridge. There are also campuses in Midland, Owen Sound and Orangeville, which by the tone of the discussion with Weaver suggests there might be more cutbacks.
The irony is the programs in Orillia were running well according to Weaver because the question was raised about why weren’t program cuts rather than closing the campus, or cutting at the other campuses the news of the day. Operation costs were an important factor, as was ability to absorb programs and students into primarily the Barrie campus, but who the students are played a major role too.
“More than 50% of students that currently study in Orillia either live in Barrie or live closer to Barrie than they do to Orillia. Not one factor tipped the scale one way or another.”
The closing of the Orillia campus also means job losses to the Orillia community beyond the campus. The college estimated in 20231 it provided $31.2 million to the local economy, which supported 382 jobs. Mayor Don McIsaac was asked if there has been any thought at City Hall about the effect of closing the campus will have.
“I haven’t really analyzed that. There’s some uncertainty for those people. It affects people who rent to students. It affects restaurants and bars and stores students and faculty spend money in,” McIsaac said.
There are also losses to the City of Orillia, which is starting budget meetings Monday, September 29. Notably Orillia Transit ridership and revenue will take a hit without Georgian students.
“They’ve got payments in lieu of taxes, but it’s not significant. We’re looking at that now, so we’re in the process; I don’t have any comment on that, but it’s obviously under review.”
There are also many intangible ways closing the campus will affect the city.
“It’s disappointing. We’d rather have it than not have it. Certainly the students, faculty and staff make contributions to our community, which are important and have not gone unnoticed. Obviously we want that to continue, but that’s just not possible given the circumstances of Georgian College,” McIsaac said.
It will also leave many local agencies and services scrambling because many aspects of creating local programs, and delivery and service improvement plans were helped by Georgian students taking on work as individual or class projects gathering and analyzing data.
Calls to Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) representatives, who represent the college support staff currently on strike were not returned. OPSEU also represents college faculty.
(Photo by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia: Images Supplied)
