Having two new leaders at Red Deer College, while the institution is transitioning to a university, will inevitably cause challenges and delays, predicts ousted board chair Morris Flewwelling.
“There’s been an awful lot going on in the last 2 1/2 years,” he explains.
“We’ve opened three new buildings. We were working … on the Canada Winter Games. We hired a new president after a 15-month search. We got the go-ahead to transition to a university, and we got a new name — Red Deer University.”
Flewwelling admits he felt it was the wrong time to break with continuity after finding out on Wednesday that Alberta’s United Conservative government replaced him as chair of the RDC board of governors six months before his term was to expire.
Since Peter Nunoda had been doing the president’s job for just eight days, Flewwelling feared bringing in a new board chair as well could cause a six-months-to-a-year delay in RDC’s transition to achieving full university status, as both men get caught up on multiple issues.
He maintains “it will be a challenge moving forward.”
But Flewwelling is now more optimistic there could be less of a hold up.
“The good news is that I’ve been replaced by Guy Pelletier.”
Flewwelling, Red Deer’s former mayor, considers Pelletier a highly capable person. He comes with public and private sector experience gained through his work in the housing industry and as former chair of the Red Deer Catholic Regional School Board.
RDC’s board members had previously identified Pelletier as someone who would be a great addition, adds Flewwelling.
While the professional impacts of Wednesday’s announcement might be mitigated by some quick studying by Nunoda and Pelletier, there’s still the personal impact of how Flewwelling’s ousting was handled.
While such changes were being made by the government at colleges and universities around the province, “it was disappointing and disrespectful how it was done,” he adds, wryly noting it’s the first time in his life he was fired from a job.
Flewwelling was contacted on Monday by an associate deputy minister of Alberta Advanced Education.
“I got the call thanking me for my service and telling me that my time as chair would soon be terminated… They said I would be finding out more…”
When he didn’t hear anything more by Wednesday, Flewwelling called the ministry and was surprised to learn Pelletier had already been appointed to replace him.
His fellow RDC board of governors members Diane Macauley and Karin Melnyk had also been removed.
While the two women are NDP supporters, Flewwelling is a lifetime Conservative, who had been appointed as RDC board chair by the former NDP government.
At 78, he wonders if the “spectre of ageism” played into the UCP decision. Regardless, it was “awkwardly handled,” considering all the time and effort the ousted board members had given.
He now looks forward to spending more time with his wife in Palm Springs, Calif., and devoting more efforts to his other charitable projects.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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