SIIT opens doors to new Regina campus

Students at the Saskatchewan Institute of Indian Technologies(SIIT) are happy to be settling into their new building in Regina.

“I don’t know how we managed in that small space,” said business administration student Maureen Jory, referring to the previous building their campus was housed in.
With growing enrollment, the Regina campus of the adult education institute moved from its much smaller downtown location to a larger building on north Albert St.

“It feels more like a campus now,” said Kayla Aisaican who is also in her second year of business administration.

“We outgrew our other campus,” said Robert Daniels, SIIT’s Director of Communications. “We try and meet the needs of the labour market. Right now there is a labour force required and SIIT stepped up to the plate.”

Aisaican said when she finishes her program, she hopes to head straight to university for a bachelor’s degree in business and then a master’s. She said it was the friendly atmosphere at SIIT that helped her fall in love with school.

“It’s lively and there’s a lot of people just smiling and welcoming,” she said.

Since students have moved to the larger campus, initiatives to bring the student body together have begun. There’s a common area where students can visit before class and a student representative who sells coffee each morning.

“Before you were just delegated to your own classroom. You only cared about your own class,” said Aisaican.
Both Aisaican and Jory have been elected to sit on Student Leadership Council—a team formed only since the new campus opened.

“Before we never saw the other students,” said Jory. “Now we communicate more and it’s an actual student body. We get to know each other and we get a say.”

Jory said the student council has started implementing a ‘Go Green’ plan to encourage recycling. They also started a canteen that offers healthy foods such as fruit and muffins,” she added.

Students say offering services such as these would never have been possible at the previous campus.

Angel Taypotat is finishing the Adult 12 program and is also the newly elected Vice-President of the Student Leadership Council. She said that the campus is now only two blocks from her home, but for other students, she’s pleased to see more parking and a bus stop that’s located right at the campus’ front door.

She hopes her next steps will be towards nursing school. “I want to be a head honcho,” she said laughing.

Daniels said with a growing Aboriginal population and a province that’s booming, it was important for SIIT to meet these demands. He added that moving to the new campus has also meant an improvement in technology. Each classroom now includes a smart board, an interactive white board for the instructor to use.
The campus also offers a range of courses to meet industry demands such as welding, addictions counseling, life skills and a high school diploma program.
Students are also able to take an SGI sponsored drivers training course through the institute at no charge.
“Now we have more space, more students, more options,” said Daniels.

SIIT has campuses in Regina, Saskatoon, and Prince Albert as well as community sites in smaller communities. The enrollment province-wide for the 2008/2009 year was 2,200, up from 1,926 in 2007/2008.