Horticulture Industries was one of the cornerstone programs at Algonquin College and for more than 40 years, it has been a key source of talent for the landscaping and gardening industry in Ontario.
Now, it has been one of 30 programs the college’s Board of Directors has decided to suspend because of financial strain.
The college’s president and CEO says the decision was not made in haste, but it needed to be made sooner rather than later.
“Delaying decisions materially increases expenditure levels, compounds program deficits and cross-subsidization, and reduces future flexibility to invest in deferred maintenance,” said Claude Brulé.
Senior Vice President Julie Beauchamp, in a presentation to the Board, outlined the health of its academic programs. Her review showed that roughly half of the college’s programs fell below the median contribution margin.
Some “110 out of 199 programs do not meet the target,” she said. “This implies that 89 programs are cross-subsidizing the entire portfolio of programs and the wider college operations.”
Tommy Wingreen, professor and coordinator for Horticulture Industries, questioned the weight given to the financial contribution as the main factor behind program suspensions, especially when there is demand for the program’s graduates.
He says, for example, that the City of Ottawa is looking for certified and educated landscapers.
We’re not going to see the effect of it right now, but in a couple of years’ time when we don’t have those graduates that are coming into horticulture and into the landscape industry, then we’re going to have a major skills gap in the marketplace.
Joe Salemi, executive director, Landscape Ontario
Jason Vodden, a lead technician and professor in Horticulture Industries, echoed the concern.
Many of the students submitted letters in support of the program, said Vodden.
“In the meeting, they said ‘dozens of letters,’ but I know for a fact that between my students, colleagues and the industry, just for our program alone, there were probably closer to 1,000 put through.”
There seemed to be a lot of support to keep the program, “but in the end, it felt like the decision was already made and all of that counted for nothing,” he added.
Vodden believes that the financial success of courses should not be the only factor considered. Algonquin had long been a cornerstone of teaching hands-on industry work experience that Vodden believes cannot be replaced by just learning theories. He says that the program also provides countless community benefits, that may disappear once the program shuts down.
One main consequence of the suspension is that students interested in horticulture and landscaping will have little to no options left to study in Eastern Ontario, Vodden says.
Vodden noted also that many of the programs cut by the college tended to “take a little bit more than a computer and a desk.” He says he believes that if programs do not lend themselves to students who thrive on “hands-on” experiences, then the right education will not reach the right people.
The college’s journalism program is another program cut. Jon Willing, professor and coordinator of the program, offers similar sentiments.
“Students will still be able to study journalism in other ways,” Willing said. “But for students who were looking forward to studying at a college in journalism, that opportunity is no longer available to them.”
Willing also says that, in the short-term at least, new journalists will not be as well-trained.
On a larger scale, he says, communities lose the benefit of properly trained reporters and editors. Students not only learned about journalism and the media in the program, but they also learned how institutions work, he says.
“They learned how their city hall works, how their police force works, how their health-care system works, how each level of government functions, and how they’re related,” Willing explained. “That level of knowledge makes better communities.”
With the loss of the program, Willing says that this kind of knowledge of one’s own community would be lost as well.
And the suspension of the program shakes the future of the school’s student paper the Algonquin Times. Willing says that the final class of first-year students will go into their second year in September and will continue the paper, but the newspaper’s fate is murky after the students graduate.
That uncertainty also affects reporting of local news in Nepean, which is covered by the paper.
Joe Salemi, executive director of Landscape Ontario, says that the college decision to cut horticulture has just made graduates even more sought-after by employers.
Wingreen said that at the Green Trade Expo, a tradeshow and conference for the landscaping industry in Eastern Ontario, he met with a lot of industry professionals who were “all concerned with where they will find educated, qualified people who are interested in staying with the industry.”
“They are left to educate their own people, and that would be an extra toll on these companies.”
Salemi says the board’s decision is going to have significant long-term effects.
“We’re not going to see the effect of it right now,” Salemi said. “But in a couple of years’ time when we don’t have those graduates that are coming into horticulture and into the landscape industry, then we’re going to have a major skills gap in the marketplace.”
Salemi explains that there are more landscaping jobs available than people for those jobs. It is a thriving industry with a viable career path but nowhere near enough trained and skilled people to do that work, he says.
“Those students that are in the horticultural industries program now, I’d say hold on to your hats because you’re gonna have the pick of employers when you’re ready to hit the workforce.”
