College opens centre for Aboriginal students

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Another Aboriginal Club office at Okanagan University College (OUC) is open, and the priority of the students running it is to raise funds for students in need.

The Aboriginal meeting place at the North Kelowna campus opened at the end of December.

"Students are planning to have the new Aboriginal centre blessed in late March by a local Elder," said Lyle Mueller, First Nations education co-ordinator at the college.

The Aboriginal Club held a fry bread, bannock and hotdog sale Feb. 27.

"The funds raised will go toward a fridge for the Aboriginal student lounge and our grand opening," said Richard Dionne, club treasurer.

March 28 is the anticipated date of the grand opening,, to which an Australian delegate has been invited to speak.

The club has established a fund in an effort to honor the spirit and contributions of a deceased former member.

Carole Marchand-Reed, 40, of Edmonton, Alta., passed away on Feb. 14 in Kelowna. She was studying for a bachelor of arts degree.

"She was an active member of the club. She played a fairly significant role in it when we were establishing this room. She provided some pretty strong support with the students' association to have them provide this space for us, so that we could develop it as an Aboriginal student centre. She was quite active in terms of supporting Aboriginal students in general on campus," said Mueller.

"The Carole Marchand-Reed Fund is an absolutely new concept of funding for students to access, and never seen before at OUC. It will be available to any student attending any program at the Okanagan University College, for extraordinary expenses, which cannot be met by any other means, and the only condition for accessing the funds is to be recommended by a college counsellor," explained Dionne.

"In the past, we have found that some students who did not qualify for the traditional college emergency funds had very basic needs which were not being met. These are distinguished from wants, the very real and very basic human needs of food for ourselves and basic necessities for our families," he said.

"The Carole Marchand-Reed fund will provide much needed resources for our student population," Dionne added. "Perhaps other centres will take up the challenge and provide similar funds for their own."

The college has five campuses: Salmon Arm, Vernon, Penticton, KLO Road, and North Kelowna.

The college's Aboriginal student council has so far established Aboriginal clubs on every campus except Salmon Arm.

Mueller explained that it was difficult to establish a club on the North Kelowna campus because "There just isn't enough space on North Kelowna campus to house all the things that go on here."

There was a club in Kelowna that had been associated with the North Kelowna and KLO Road campuses, but KLO Road got their Aboriginal student club established "three or four years ago," he said. "We just haven't managed to get a centre for Aboriginal students at North Kelowna until just this year."

The student association allocated 200 square feet to Aboriginal students. Then the college did some renovations.

"Actually, the students have done it. My job here is to support students," Mueller said. "They do all the organizing. Students go and talk to the students' association . . . they've got a council for their own club. At any given meeting they have as many as 10 folks there, sometimes more," he said.

All college students can participate in the clubs.

"The biggest benefit is that you belong to the club, so you get some support from other students . . . The club has meetings, tries to sort out things, different kinds of fundraising activities, different kinds of issues within the institution," said Mueller.

Dionne added, "We have from one to 10 students in the Aboriginal centre at any one time on a daily basis. It is perhaps the most used room on campus by Aboriginal students.

"It is a place where we can chat and just unwind or catch up on the local student gossip study for exams and plan for our future, comparing notes with each other. Before the Aboriginal room opened we were floating around the school really with no place to meet and relax as a Native population. I, for one, wanted to meet with other First Nations, but it always seemed so awkward. We do have our peculiarities, you know. And there are times when we do like to be with just ourselves. It is not a big space; however, it is ours."

Services include three Aboriginal mentors on duty at different times from Monday to Friday, an Aboriginal student education advisor available during alternate weekdays, and a computer for Internet access.

The club is seeking donations to fill a bookcase with books by Aboriginal writers for its Aboriginal library project.

Hours of operation are 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday during the school year.