Award recognizes college’s commitment to environmental sustainability for third consecutive year

Oshawa, ON – Durham College (DC) is pleased to announce that it has been named one of Canada’s Greenest Employers for the third consecutive year. Awarded as part of the 2019 editorial competition that is organized by the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project, this designation recognizes employers who create remarkable workplaces that minimize the environmental impact of their operations.

Winning employers are those that incorporate environmental values into their everyday culture, and attract employees because of such values and are evaluated on the following criteria:

1. The unique environmental initiatives or programs they have developed.
2. Whether they have been successful in reducing their own environmental footprint.
3. Whether their employees are involved in these programs and contribute any unique skills.
4. Whether their environmental initiatives have become linked to the employer’s public identity, attracting new employees and customers.

This year, DC has been recognized for its sustainability focus related to infrastructure and supporting behavioural changes among its employees and students. At a planning level, both new construction and renovation decisions are made through a sustainable lens. This includes LED lighting being the only option at the college, working towards 100 per cent LED use, including in its parking lots. In addition, hydration stations have been installed in every wing of the college to offer cooled, filtered water, thus reducing the use of plastic bottles.

The college’s Green Office Certification Program began last year, providing guidelines to incorporate sustainability into daily operations. Supported from the top down, the program focuses on energy and water conservation, waste diversion, purchasing habits and creating a green-focused office culture. Using a checklist as a guide, individual departments are encouraged to undertake sustainable actions in a variety of categories. These include using alternative transportation or using mini bins as a replacement for personal garbage cans. Across DC there has also been a move towards using centralized printers as opposed to personal ones, reducing overall paper use.

“It makes us very proud to once again be listed as one of Canada’s greenest employers,” said Don Lovisa, president, Durham College. “We are really starting to see the impact of our sustainability efforts across our campuses and learning site for the betterment of our students, employees and the broader community. As the college continues to evolve, we will do so with sustainability at the forefront of our decisions and plans.”

The new Simcoe Geothermal Field project, which is currently underway at DC’s Oshawa campus, is a prime example of the college’s sustainable efforts in action and was substantially complete on March 31, 2019.

For more information on living green at DC please visit www.durhamcollege.ca/livinggreen.

 

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About Durham College

At Durham College (DC), the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby and a learning site in Pickering, the college offers more than 13,600 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship students access to more than 140 full-time and eight apprenticeship programs in a number of different disciplines, enabling them to develop the skills required to meet the demands of today’s job market. The college has also launched its first four-year degree program, the Honours Bachelor of Health Care Technology Management, in September 2018.

The Oshawa campus features the state-of-the art Student Services building and the Centre for Collaborative Education, a legacy project tied to DC’s 50th anniversary in 2017. The newly-opened facility brings together local, Indigenous and global communities, providing a new home for several of the college’s most innovative and ground-breaking programs.

The Whitby campus features the award-winning W. Galen Weston Centre for Food, which includes Bistro ’67, a full-service, teaching-inspired restaurant, and Pantry, a retail store featuring food prepared by students in the college’s culinary programs.

For more information, visit www.durhamcollege.ca or call 905.721.2000.

Media contact:
Meghan Ney
Communications and Marketing
905.721.2000 ext. 2197
meghan.ney@durhamcollege.ca

The college welcomes new programs that encourage young people to enter technical and trade-related programs at the apprenticeship and post-secondary levels.

Oshawa, ON – The 2019 Ontario Budget commitment to create a one-window digital portal for apprentices will produce a more highly qualified workforce, Ontario’s colleges said today.

“This will ensure more people enrol in apprenticeship training,” said Don Lovisa, president, Durham College (DC). “It will produce more apprentices to help Ontario close the skills gap.”

The current application system is awash in red tape. There is no clear application process and many people seeking to become apprentices find it difficult to get matched with willing employers.

The creation of a one-window portal will make the application process straightforward and easily accessible. Ontario’s colleges are eager to support the efforts to create this new portal.

“The government clearly recognizes it should be as easy for students to apply to be apprentices as it is to apply to any other college or university program,” Lovisa said. “Modernizing our apprenticeship system will help make it one of the best in the world.”

Other budget highlights to produce a stronger workforce included:

• Establishing programs to encourage people to enter the skilled trades.
• Launching a new micro-credentials pilot this spring to provide people with the skills employers are seeking.

DC is known for its skilled trades and welcomes new programs that encourage young people to enter technical and trade-related programs at the apprenticeship and post-secondary levels.  “Our current plans to expand the Whitby campus to provide new capacity to welcome over 700 additional students into skilled trades,” said Lovisa. This expansion will focus on high-priority industries as well as trades like electricians and millwrights, and emerging areas such as boilermakers, all of which have been identified as being in high-demand.

DC also offers micro-credentials in a number of areas and looks forward to opportunities to expand this growing trend that recognizes specific skills and knowledge necessary for success in many careers.

“College education is pivotal to Ontario’s success and to ensuring more people find rewarding careers,” said Lovisa. “We look forward to working with the government to helping more people acquire the expertise that is essential to success in this new economy.”

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About Durham College

At Durham College (DC), the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby and a learning site in Pickering, we offer approximately 13,600 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship students access to more than 140 full-time and nine apprenticeship programs, including the new Honours Bachelor of Health Care Technology Management degree.

We enable students to develop the career-ready skills required to meet the demands of today’s job market by connecting them with expert faculty and offering quality programs. With a focus on experiential learning through field-placements, applied research, co-ops and other hands-on opportunities, DC grads have the skills and knowledge employers need.

The Oshawa campus features DC’s newest building the Centre for Collaborative Education which represents the college’s commitment to working with local business and community partners while bringing together local, Indigenous and global communities and members of key business sectors.

DC’s Whitby campus features the W. Galen Weston Centre for Food, which includes Bistro ’67, a full-service, teaching-inspired restaurant, and Pantry, a retail store featuring food prepared by students in the college’s culinary programs.

For more information, visit www.durhamcollege.ca or call 905.721.2000.

 

Media contact:

Shelly Kowalski
Communications and Marketing
O: 905.721.2000 ext. 6219
M: 905.626.0675
shelly.kowalski@durhamcollege.ca

Broadcast-grade venue to serve as community hub, varsity training ground and living lab

Oshawa, Ont. – Durham College (DC) has officially opened a first-of-its-kind Esports Gaming Arena. Located in the Student Centre at the college’s Oshawa campus, the 3,000-sq-ft. venue is unique from any other collegiate gaming space in Canada thanks to its extensive broadcast capabilities and lounge area that can hold up to 120 spectators for esports tournaments.

“With this venue, DC is establishing itself as an undisputed leader in one of the fastest-growing industries in the gaming market,” says DC president Don Lovisa. “In addition to being the campus gaming hub and training ground for the Durham Lords esports varsity team, the arena will also be a living lab. Its industry-grade design will provide students with vital hands-on experience to prepare them for career success in the global esports market, which is on track to exceed $1.6 billion by 2021.”

Developed with the support of industry partners and gaming leaders Lenovo (Canada) and Monster Energy, the DC Esports Gaming Arena features include:

• 46 Legion by Lenovo gaming PCs with added Nvidia GEForce RTX 2080 graphics cards, 12 of which sit behind a glass partition and are reserved for esports varsity players’ training.
• Streaming capabilities at each gaming station so that gamers can broadcast their play live on Twitch.
• Monster Energy DX Racer ergonomic gaming chairs, which feature back and neck cushions and adjustable backs, arms and seats to provide support and comfort and mitigate repetitive stress injuries.
• Five 55” display monitors and a 110” projector for in-house tournament broadcasting.

“We’ve taken to calling it a gamers’ paradise and it truly is,” says arena manager Sarah Wagg. “The DC arena is designed with the student and gamer experience in mind. The lounging and gathering spaces encourage relaxation, connection and fun, and make it a space that welcomes and embraces gamers of all kinds.”

The Esports Gaming Arena is part of DC’s four-part esports plan which also includes the Durham Lords esports varsity team, which began competing with teams across North America in 2018, a recreational gaming club and integration of esports into the college’s post-secondary program curricula.

While use of the gaming stations is reserved for DC students, alumni and employees during regular hours of operation, the Esports Gaming Arena is available for private bookings to host birthday parties, corporate events and gaming tournaments.

Booking inquiries can be made by emailing esports@durhamcollege.ca.

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About Durham College

At Durham College (DC), the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby and a learning site in Pickering, we offer approximately 13,600 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship students access to more than 140 full-time and nine apprenticeship programs, including the new Honours Bachelor of Health Care Technology Management degree.

We enable students to develop the career-ready skills required to meet the demands of today’s job market by connecting them with expert faculty and offering quality programs. With a focus on experiential learning through field-placements, applied research, co-ops and other hands-on opportunities, DC grads have the skills and knowledge employers need.

The Oshawa campus features DC’s newest building the Centre for Collaborative Education which represents the college’s commitment to working with local business and community partners while bringing together local, Indigenous and global communities and members of key business sectors.

DC’s Whitby campus features the W. Galen Weston Centre for Food, which includes Bistro ’67, a full-service, teaching-inspired restaurant, and Pantry, a retail store featuring food prepared by students in the college’s culinary programs.

For more information, visit www.durhamcollege.ca or call 905.721.2000.

Media contact:
Melissa McLean (she/her/hers)
Communications and Marketing
Durham College
o: 905.721.2000 ext. 2952
m: 647.880.6363
melissa.mclean@durhamcollege.ca

Local high school students will vie for taste bud supremacy at W. Galen Weston Centre for Food

Whitby, Ont.– Durham College (DC) will host its fifth annual Epic Mac n’ Cheese Competition on Saturday, April 6. Teams of Grade 11 and 12 students from across Durham Region will compete for top culinary honours by creating incredible edibles using Canada’s favourite comfort food – macaroni and cheese!

The event is open to the public and attendees will have the chance to taste each team’s creation and vote for their favourite. All competitors will be eligible to receive a bursary towards their education in one of DC’s culinary programs.

Media are invited to take pictures/video throughout the competition, including while teams cook their special mac n’ cheese recipes and members of the public sample them, as well as during the awards ceremony.

When: 
Saturday, April 6
Registration – 8:30 a.m.
Competition – 9 a.m. 
Public tasting – 11:30 a.m.
Awards ceremony – 1 p.m.

Where: 
W. Galen Weston Centre for Food
Durham College, Whitby campus
1610 Champlain Avenue, Whitby

Parking:

Visitors to the W. Galen Weston Centre for Food are asked to use the main entrance of the Whitby campus off Champlain Avenue to access the W. Galen Weston Centre for Food (CFF). Upon entry into the parking lot, drive north to the end of the lot and then west towards the CFF.

For more information please contact:

Shelly Kowalski
Durham College
O: 905.721.2000 ext. 6219 
shelly.kowalski@durhamcollege.ca

Town of Whitby to provide $1 million in funding

Oshawa, Ont. – Durham College (DC) is pleased to announce the process to secure funding in support of an expansion of its Whitby campus, has begun.

Currently home to more than 2,100 post-secondary students, 1,300 skilled-trade apprentices (which includes 150 high school level Ontario Youth Apprentices), and 1,000’s of other part-time students and corporate clients through the college’s School of Continuing Education and Corporate Training Services, the college has seen 130 per cent increase in the student population in Whitby in the past ten years.

“The fact of the matter is the college has outgrown the current space at the Whitby campus, which is affecting its ability to meet current demand from students and employers throughout the region,” said Don Lovisa, president, Durham College. “We are extremely excited about what this expansion can mean for DC, the broader community and skilled trades in general.”

Built with a focus on high-priority industries such as elevating devices and trades including electricians, crane operators and millwrights and emerging areas such as boilermakers, the expansion will feature a new 60,000 sq. ft. centre that will double the college’s industrial skilled trades training capacity. In addition, it will position DC and Whitby as ground zero for post-secondary and apprenticeship elevating devices training in Ontario and Canada.

The college will also be able to foster new partnerships with industry on applied research projects that will advance innovation and knowledge, while creating opportunities for professional development and continuous learning for industry professionals. It will also help meet employer and apprentice demand as well as creating new job opportunities on campus.

Completion of the expansion is estimated to cost $35 million, $1 million of which is being contributed by the Town of Whitby. Donated over a five-year period, the town has once again demonstrated its support for DC through providing capital funding.

“Durham College is a great community partner and contributor to our vibrant and growing town,” said Whitby Mayor Don Mitchell. “Council was pleased to support this expansion as it will deliver more local jobs and provide the skills training needed for a prosperous future.”

More details about the expansion and subsequent capital campaign will be shared in the coming weeks and months, as the college continues to pursue other funding for the project.

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About Durham College

At Durham College (DC), the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby and a learning site in Pickering, the college offers more than 13,600 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship students access to more than 140 full-time and eight apprenticeship programs in a number of different disciplines, enabling them to develop the skills required to meet the demands of today’s job market. The college has also launched its first four-year degree program, the Honours Bachelor of Health Care Technology Management, in September 2018.

The Oshawa campus features the state-of-the art Student Services building and the Centre for Collaborative Education, a legacy project tied to DC’s 50th anniversary in 2017. The newly-opened facility brings together local, Indigenous and global communities, providing a new home for several of the college’s most innovative and ground-breaking programs.

The Whitby campus features the award-winning W. Galen Weston Centre for Food, which includes Bistro ’67, a full-service, teaching-inspired restaurant, and Pantry, a retail store featuring food prepared by students in the college’s culinary programs.

For more information, visit www.durhamcollege.ca or call 905.721.2000. 

Media contact:
Shelly Kowalski
Communications and Marketing
905.721.2000 ext. 2197
shelly.kowalski@durhamcollege.ca

Babcock is being recognized for his career achievements at DC and within the Oshawa community

Oshawa, ON – In recognition of an extraordinary career, Durham College’s (DC) director of athletics, Ken Babcock, was announced on January 28 as a 2019 Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame inductee. The announcement was made to City Council, followed by a media conference at the Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery. A formal induction ceremony will take place on Wednesday, May 29 at the Tribute Communities Centre.

Beginning his career with the college in 1987, Babcock has been an outstanding leader and mentor, having helped many Durham Lords sports teams achieve an astonishing 42 provincial gold medals and 105 overall medals in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA), and an additional five gold and 22 overall medals in the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA).

His influence at DC goes beyond coaching, as Babcock was a driving force behind the construction of the Campus Fieldhouse and Vaso’s Field in 2003, the Campus Ice Centre in 2005 and the Campus Wellness and Recreation Centre in 2007, all of which serve students and employees, but also the wider community.

“Ken has spent many years guiding young athletes to achieve success both on and off the field. His accomplishments are a testament to his unwavering dedication and passion for athletics at DC and beyond,” says Don Lovisa, president, DC. “The entire DC community is extremely proud of Ken and this well-deserved recognition.”

Over the span of his sports career, Babcock helped found the Canadian Collegiate Baseball Association in 1994, created the Durham College Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, helped launch the OCAA Hall of Fame in 2003, and developed and launched the University of Ontario Institute of Technology varsity athletics program in 2003.

He has also given back to the Oshawa community beyond the campus, primarily through Baseball Oshawa, where he has coached since 2005 and served as president since 2012. He was also a member of the organizing committee for the 2000 Ontario Summer Games, the 2008 Ontario Special Olympics Spring Games as well as the baseball portion of the 2015 Toronto Pan-Am Games.

The Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame honours the achievements of five Oshawa individuals and teams every year, recognizing those who have attained prominence and distinction in sports and who have made a major contribution to the development of sport.

Former DC Men’s Basketball coach, Peter Gordon, was also was also announced as a 2019 inductee.

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About Durham College

At Durham College (DC), the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby and a learning site in Pickering, we offer approximately 13,600 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship students access to more than 140 full-time and nine apprenticeship programs, including the new Honours Bachelor of Health Care Technology Management degree.

We enable students to develop the career-ready skills required to meet the demands of today’s job market by connecting them with expert faculty and offering quality programs. With a focus on experiential learning through field-placements, applied research, co-ops and other hands-on opportunities, DC grads have the skills and knowledge employers need.

The Oshawa campus features DC’s newest building the Centre for Collaborative Education which represents the college’s commitment to working with local business and community partners while bringing together local, Indigenous and global communities and members of key business sectors.

DC’s Whitby campus features the W. Galen Weston Centre for Food, which includes Bistro ’67, a full-service, teaching-inspired restaurant, and Pantry, a retail store featuring food prepared by students in the college’s culinary programs.

For more information, visit www.durhamcollege.ca or call 905.721.2000.

Media contact:
Shelly Kowalski
Communications and Marketing
905.721.2000 ext. 6219
shelly.kowalski@durhamcollege.ca

Partnership will create more ‘job ready’ graduates

TORONTO – Durham College (DC) and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) are celebrating the recent completion of the college’s first-ever Boiler Lab in Whitby. Funded by both DC and OPG, the new Boiler Lab will help ensure graduates gain real-world experience and knowledge from hands-on learning in an actual, operating boiler-room setting.

“Skilled trade professionals are in high demand and are needed to successfully complete OPG’s Darlington Refurbishment Project. Our partnership with Durham College is essential in providing current and future staffing needs. The Boiler Lab is the type of training facility that is a must for meeting demand,” said Jeff Lyash, OPG President and CEO. “Leading-edge institutions such as Durham College are training the next generation of skilled trades that will help ensure that Canada’s largest clean energy project continues to track on time and budget.”

Since 2005, OPG has invested $15 million in educational partnership programs with DC and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology to increase the pool of skilled and qualified graduates as the nuclear industry enters into an era of a skilled trades supply gap.

“The partnership between the college and OPG is a great example of industry and post-secondary coming together to deliver training and demonstrates what is possible as a result of these types of agreements,” said Don Lovisa, President, Durham College. “OPG identified a need and through hands-on learning in the Boiler Lab, DC is meeting it. For our students this means they are graduating with the experience required to easily transition into their careers, helping ensure the future viability of the skilled trades.”

Training in the Boiler Lab is part of the  Power Engineering Technician – Fourth Class program offered at DC and will play an integral role in competency development. The lab joins a long list of training simulation environments offered at the college’s Whitby campus including energy, residential construction and carpentry and horticulture labs.

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 About OPG

OPG generates safe, clean, reliable, low-cost power for Ontario. More than 99 per cent of this power is free of smog and greenhouse gas emissions. OPG’s power is priced an average of 40 per cent lower than other generators, which helps moderate customer bills.

 

About Durham College

At DC the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby and a learning site in Pickering, the college offers more than 13,600 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship students access to more than 140 full-time and eight apprenticeship programs in a number of different disciplines, enabling them to develop the skills required to meet the demands of today’s job market.

 For more information, visit www.durhamcollege.ca or call 905.721.2000.

Media contacts:
Ontario Power Generation
416.592.4008 or 1.877.592.4008
Follow us @opg

Durham College
Meghan Ney
Communications and Marketing
meghan.ney@durhamcollege.ca

Faculty and students working alongside company using AI to automate marketing platform, data collection and analysis

Oshawa, Ont. – Durham College’s (DC) Hub for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence for Business Solutions (the AI Hub) is pleased to announce it has partnered with marketing services & analytics company MobileXCo on a project focused on using AI and machine learning to help automate Tether™, its web-based experience marketing platform.

In a time when consumers are driven by experiences, brands are looking to engage them in interactive and memorable ways. However, it can be difficult to measure which parts of a company’s marketing initiatives are delivering true value. Enter MobileXCo and Tether™, which helps companies close the gap between their promotion-type marketing activities and understanding how they contribute to sales by linking campaign participation and activity to transactions at retail.

By taking a transaction-centric approach to consumer participation in contests and gift-with-purchase reward programs, MobileXCo directly links specific consumer activity to a purchase. In the process they collect valuable data related to the participants and their transactions and analyze it to surface valuable insights.

In partnership with Durham College, the objective is to automate as much of the receipt data extraction, organization and analysis as possible. The end result will be a more streamlined and less labour intensive solution that inherently delivers incremental value based on data.

“As a company going through a critical transformation in the way we do business, the impact of this project will be profound,” said Andy Bruce, CEO, MobileXCo. “We see our commitment to building a data-centric, AI-powered approach to shopper marketing as a strategic move to help propel MobileXCo into the future and the DC team is playing a key role in making that happen. Our initial excitement and optimism for the project has been validated and continues to strengthen as we move through the project phases. We’re feeling great about our investment in this partnership.”

Over the course of four phases, DC faculty and student-research assistants from the college’s Computer Programming Analyst and Data Analytics for Business Decision making Program are working directly with MobileXCo, providing them with an opportunity to not only learn about advanced AI technologies but also hands-on industry experience developing a real, functional solution for a client.

“Our partnership with MobileXCo is a perfect example of the value of the AI Hub,” said Joey Lees, principal investigator for the project. “Not only are we supporting a local business in integrating AI into their operations, we are also giving students a chance to take their learning from class and into the real world. The AI Hub is not about conducting research for research’s sake, it’s about providing resources, expertise and ultimately solutions for our clients.”

Work with MobileXCo is scheduled to be completed early in January 2019. The project is one of several research initiatives being undertaken by the AI Hub, which will be further enhancing its capacity following the approval of $2 million in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), through the council’s College and Community Innovation Program.

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About Durham College

At Durham College (DC), the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby and a learning site in Pickering, the college offers more than 13,600 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship students access to more than 140 full-time and eight apprenticeship programs in a number of different disciplines, enabling them to develop the skills required to meet the demands of today’s job market. The college has also launched its first four-year degree program, the Honours Bachelor of Health Care Technology Management, in September 2018.

The Oshawa campus features the state-of-the art Student Services building and the Centre for Collaborative Education, a legacy project tied to DC’s 50th anniversary in 2017. The newly-opened facility brings together local, Indigenous and global communities, providing a new home for several of the college’s most innovative and ground-breaking programs.

The Whitby campus features the award-winning W. Galen Weston Centre for Food, which includes Bistro ’67, a full-service, teaching-inspired restaurant, and Pantry, a retail store featuring food prepared by students in the college’s culinary programs.

For more information, visit www.durhamcollege.ca or call 905.721.2000.

About MobileXCo

MobileXCo is a marketing services and software company that specializes in providing B2C brand organizations with expertise and tools to run digital promotions that are designed to engage consumers, measure results and uncover valuable insights through data collection and analysis.

Tether™, MobileXCo’s Experience Marketing software product, is a web-based experience management and measurement application. It is available to marketers for the purpose of monitoring promotion results in real-time, building consumer databases, logging engagement activity, and managing consumer support tickets and communications via email and mobile message services (SMS & Facebook Messenger).

Utilizing the power of technology, MobileXCo takes the guesswork out of marketing.

Visit mobilexco.com for more information, or email us at hello@mobilexco.com

Media contacts:

Meghan Ney
Communications and Marketing
Durham College

meghan.ney@durhamcollege.ca

Katrina Wotten
Marketing & Project Manager
MobileXCo
katrina@mobilexco.com

DC receives support to increase its food production, experiment with newer agriculture practices and provide
students with new experiential learning opportunities

Oshawa, Ont. – Durham College (DC) is pleased to share that The W. Garfield Weston Foundation (the Foundation) has donated $1 million to fund the expansion of farming operations at the W. Galen Weston Centre for Food (CFF) to support experiential learning opportunities for DC students.

The success of the Horticulture Technician and Horticulture – Food and Farming programs over the last two years has resulted in a doubling of enrolment and a greater demand for fresh foods from the field. This donation will support the construction of a post-harvest and storage facility, greenhouse expansion and the implementation of container farming, all of which will increase and better process the CFF’s food production, allow for experimentation of newer agriculture practices, and provide students with new experiential learning opportunities.

“The Foundation is pleased to support Durham College and its students once again as they continue to pave the way for a new-generation approach to local food and sustainability,” said Eliza Mitchell, director, the Foundation. “This grant will allow for more food production, new opportunities to teach non-traditional farming and, most importantly, more chances for students to gain critical skills that will put them in demand upon graduation.”

The first half of the Foundation’s donation will go towards building the post-harvest conditioning and storage facility in the spring of 2019. This will improve the CFF’s process operations and farm work flows and provide for long-term storage of produce, while also minimizing food waste. Once completed, the grant will further support greenhouse expansion to increase space and allow for more students, plants and projects, and introduce innovative container farming to allow for small-scale agriculture and year-round growing. The additions will also increase the supply of fresh food coming directly to the CFF’s culinary programs and its business operations, Bistro ’67, Pantry and special events.

“On behalf of Durham College and the CFF, we are tremendously grateful for the generosity and the ongoing support from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation through this thoughtful donation,” said Don Lovisa, president, DC. “These projects will continue to enhance all of the CFF’s post-secondary programming and provide significant experiential learning benefits to our current students while further positioning us as best in class with our unique field-to-fork model of education and service delivery.”

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About Durham College
At Durham College (DC), the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby and a learning site in Pickering, we offer approximately 13,600 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship students access to more than 140 full-time and nine apprenticeship programs, including the new Honours Bachelor of Health Care Technology Management degree.

We enable students to develop the career-ready skills required to meet the demands of today’s job market by connecting them with expert faculty and offering quality programs. With a focus on experiential learning through field-placements, applied research, co-ops and other hands-on opportunities, DC grads have the skills and knowledge employers need.

The Oshawa campus features DC’s newest building the Centre for Collaborative Education which represents the college’s commitment to working with local business and community partners while bringing together local, Indigenous and global communities and members of key business sectors.

DC’s Whitby campus features the W. Galen Weston Centre for Food, which includes Bistro ’67, a full-service, teaching-inspired restaurant, and Pantry, a retail store featuring food prepared by students in the college’s culinary programs.

For more information, visit www.durhamcollege.ca or call 905.721.2000.

About The W. Garfield Weston Foundation
For three generations, The W. Garfield Weston Foundation has pursued its mission to enhance and enrich the lives of Canadians. With a focus on medical research, the environment, and education, the Foundation aims to catalyze inquiry and innovation to bring about long-term change. As the Foundation marks its 60th anniversary, it continues to collaborate with a broad range of Canadian charities to further world-class research, explore new ideas, and create tangible benefits for the communities in which it works.

Media contact:
Shelly Kowalski
Communications and Marketing
905.721.2000 ext. 6219
shelly.kowalski@durhamcollege.ca

 

(TORONTO, Dec. 17, 2018) – The presidents of Ontario’s 24 colleges have approved a new free speech policy that will be publicly posted at each college by Jan. 1, 2019.

“Freedom of expression is fundamental to the dissemination of knowledge and to encouraging creative thinking,” said Linda Franklin, the president and CEO of Colleges Ontario. “We’re committed to the open discussion of diverse ideas and respecting everyone’s right to express their opinions.”

The policy was developed by a task force of senior college leaders in collaboration with the College Student Alliance, legal experts and others. It was approved at a recent meeting of Ontario’s college presidents.

The policy statement is primarily based on the University of Chicago’s Statement on Principles of Free Expression and has five core elements:

• A definition of freedom of speech.
• A commitment to allow open discussion and free inquiry.
• A statement that it is not the colleges’ role to shield members of the college community from ideas they disagree with.
• A statement that while members of the college community are free to contest the views of others, they must also respect the rights of others to express their views.
• An affirmation that speech that violates the law is not allowed.

The policy describes the procedures for handling complaints and ensuring there is compliance. The policy also states that it is aligned with other college policies and they shall all be considered together. Once it takes effect on Jan. 1, it will apply to the entire college community.

“Ontario’s colleges provide students with the professional expertise and judgment that leads to rewarding careers,” Franklin said. “This new policy enhances our delivery of leading-edge programs that put Ontario at the forefront of the new economy.”

Durham College’s policy is available on the website.