Conestoga College’s Great Potential

By Lepold Koff and Vikki Poirier

Picture taken by: David Bell

Conestoga College’s crisis of leadership has played itself out on the pages of the Record over the last three years, but has been evident to those of us who work at the college for much longer. While we welcome the news that Ontario has removed the Conestoga College Board of Governors and appointed Linda Franklin as Administrator, this dramatic step would not have been necessary had the provincial government been paying attention.

The governance problems at Conestoga have been obvious since John Tibbits made a vulgar, allegedly slanderous verbal attack against David Orazietti of Sault College in February of 2024. The depth of the problems has been locally known since at least October 16, 2024, when Robert Williams wrote a detailed account of the many governance failures at the college going back decades in a Waterloo Region Record article.

Had the Ontario government acted sooner, there would have been time to appoint a competent slate of directors to remove John Tibbits and clean up his mess. Instead, they let the problem get worse and worse until the dramatic step of the appointment of an Administrator became necessary.

While a great deal of damage has been done due to the slow action of the province, the appointment of Franklin provides an opportunity to clean up the college’s governance and improve Conestoga’s reputation.

Franklin appears to have the background to solve Conestoga’s crisis of leadership. She understands the Ontario college system, having spent sixteen years as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Colleges Ontario, and she has served on an impressive list of boards, including currently serving on the Niagara College Board of Governors.

Even with all her experience, Franklin has a daunting task ahead that would be made easier if she prioritizes reconstituting the Board of Governors as quickly as possible. One individual, no matter her excellent qualifications, cannot replace an entire board. A high-functioning board brings deep insight into strategy, provides effective oversight, and ensures connection to the community. In a crisis, an effective board can ensure nothing important falls through the cracks and that multiple perspectives are considered to address problems.

To restore the board of governors, Franklin should immediately create a nominating committee made up of key Conestoga College stakeholders. The committee should be tasked with recruiting a board of governors to be in place by the end of August.

Once in place, the board must proceed to hire a new permanent President as their top priority. The search should involve widespread consultations on what Conestoga needs in its next President.

Acting quickly to restore the board and hire a new President is imperative, as on the ground, things are worse than is publicly understood. The steady drip of layoffs, instead of one dramatic announcement of large-scale layoffs, has devastated morale.  To successfully move Conestoga forward, alongside restoring the board of governors, Franklin must develop a turnaround plan that involves no further reductions in support staff or faculty.

The turnaround plan itself must have a core focus on restoring the college’s reputation. For the past seven years, the community has watched the Conestoga President build an entire strategy on selling Canadian citizenship. To help restore Conestoga’s reputation, Franklin must make clear that this faulty strategy was the work of Tibbits and the board of governors, and it is now in the past.

While restoring the college’s reputation will not be easy, Conestoga is in a better position than it publicly appears. Remarkably, program quality has been maintained even amidst the drop in morale. Administrators, support staff, and faculty care deeply about the education experience and have sacrificed their own well-being to put students first. Amidst the turmoil, Conestoga employees have remained committed to what should be Conestoga’s strategic focus going forward: helping students find meaningful employment. For Conestoga College to live up to its great potential, the new board of governors and the President must show the same commitment to student success.

Lepold Koff is the President of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 237 (the union for Conestoga College faculty). Vikki Poirier is the President of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 238 (the union for Conestoga College support staff).