NAITSA’s 2019-20 Executive Council: Karen Velasco (President), Emi Oke (VP Academic), Alexis Flinkert (VP Student Services) and – (not pictured) AJ Jaruga (VP External).
Photo Courtesy of NAITSA
By: Joe Lipovski
NAITSA is in the process of building new offices. The former NAIT executive offices in the O building are now entirely gutted and the floor levelled. With the building process of the new office space now beginning, NAITSA is looking at furnishing the space.
However, some senators questioned executives on the extent of such a large construction project, especially when NAITSA is moving into an existing office space.
Administration director, Leanne Mills told senators that the new offices will be in the original part of NAIT. Therefore, many elements are in need of upgrades. Some of the upgrades include: a sprinkler system and a new air handling unit.
New Contract
NAIT has been awarded a contract. The contract allows NAIT and SAIT to update Alberta’s apprenticeship Individual Learning Modules (ILM). Many ILMs are still in the first version, while other trades are using ILMs that are in their fifth version. NAIT will oversee this process of updating the ILMs and plans to begin this process in June.
Senator Rick Guillaume, trades and apprenticeships, said that updating ILMs was previously contracted out to a third party. Now that NAIT is overseeing the process, he expects ILMs to be corrected and updated more frequently.
“This has been needed for a long time,” said Guillaume.
Outgoing Executives
NAITSA’s outgoing executives are now training the incoming executives. They are now going over the goals of the current executive team. Learning not only their own roles and responsibilities, they are also meeting the NAITSA staff and learning about their roles.
President Naomi Pela said they are working on transitioning projects and committees. This is the first year that they have a schedule. Pela plans to keep the lines of communication open with the incoming executives even after they have settled into their new roles.
Printing Costs to Increase
Senator Chan-Lowe continued her requests for more information regarding the increased cost to printing on campus. The increase that took effect earlier this year, is something that Chan-Lowe feels strongly about. She believes that NAIT should have given students advanced warning of the increase.
VP Academic, Brenda Needham, had spoken with print solutions, saying NAIT had made the decision for the increase over the summer. NAITSA was not on the committee involved in making the decision. Needham will continue to follow up with print solutions regarding the increase.
