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Excitement surrounding university status at Red Deer College open house

Students planning to attend Red Deer College filled the post-secondary institution’s hallways at an open house.
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Brittany Lausen, president of the Students’ Association of Red Deer College, chats with future students during the post-secondary institution’s open house. Photo by SEAN MCINTOSH/Advocate staff

Students planning to attend Red Deer College filled the post-secondary institution’s hallways at an open house.

“It gives our community a chance to see what we do here every single day when we educate our students,” said registrar Trish Nuyten on Saturday.

“It’s an opportunity for our community to see our campus and our new facilities, particularly our Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre that we had built as a result of the winter games. We also have a brand new residence.

“Without open houses, people are sometimes reluctant to come on campus, although we’re open every day of the year except for Christmas.”

Nuyten said there was a buzz at the open house regarding RDC becoming a university.

“That’s creating opportunity for our institution to offer new degree programs. That creates a whole new atmosphere for us, but we’re also still a community-based institution that will continue to offer what we do well, which is our certificates, our diplomas, our trades and our technology programs,” she said.

Brittany Lausen, president of the Students’ Association of Red Deer College, agreed with Nuyten, saying people are excited for the institution to become Red Deer University.

“I’ve had a lot of parents ask me, ‘When is it coming?’ The sooner the better. I think students want to get their degrees here. They want to stay at one institution, do their four years and enter the workforce,” said Lausen.

“I’ve actually talked to a lot of Grade 11 students who were excited to hear our business and education degrees are going to be launching by the time they graduate high school. It’s right around the corner for our students.”

Most young people Lausen spoke with are either starting at RDC in January or are planning on coming to the school in the fall.

“Open houses are such a good opportunity for prospective students to come and get a feel for what RDC is really like. They get to meet instructors, different service departments,” she said.

Nuyten said the layout for this open house was different than in past years.

“In previous years, we had the approach where it was more of a trade show, where we would have information booths about our programs and services in one area.

“But this year, we felt it was important to highlight how great our facility is, so we decided to spread our programs and services throughout the campus,” said Nuyten.



sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com

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Sean McIntosh

About the Author: Sean McIntosh

Sean joined the Red Deer Advocate team in the summer of 2017. Originally from Ontario, he worked in a small town of 2,000 in Saskatchewan for seven months before coming to Central Alberta.
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