Conestoga College's reputation has taken several hits in recent months and now, as international student concerns mount and its embattled president faces calls to resign, some staff are speaking out about the damaging toll it's taken on their morale.
Chris Arsenault helps lead the journalism program at the college and said he's noticed a dramatic change over the past few years; the current year being his most difficult.
"This has been a particularly challenging year in classrooms across the college," Arsenault said. "The management structure and the economic structure of how the college has increased its international student intakes is fundamentally failing students."
Arsenault said the reliance on untrusted and improperly-vetted immigration agents in India are a stain on the college.
He said this "broken system" has been putting students in programs where they don't belong and don't want to be and it's become increasingly frustrating for staff who want to offer the best education possible for their students.
That can be a challenge when the majority of students don't show up for class.
In the fall, Conestoga was identified as one of the main importers of foreign students, with over 30,000 study permits granted in 2023.
Since then they have been at the epicentre of criticism from other colleges, the community and the federal immigration minister himself, who capped the number of foreign students earlier this year.
Although Conestoga was given the lion's share of international study permits under that cap, with 19,885, the second most in the province, the school is starting to scale back operational costs to accommodate the estimated drop in revenue.
One way it's doing this is by offering staff at higher salary levels early retirement packages to free up positions that start at significantly lower salaries.
Leopold Koff is the president of OPSEU Local 237, which looks after faculty, librarians and counsellors and said the new early retirement package being offered to staff has become more enticing than ever.
"I bet if they lowered the age by a few years, you would have way more taking this package, because they want out," Koff said.
The early retirement package that has been confirmed by the college offers those over the age of 60 with at least 10 years of full-time service a year's salary.
Koff added that this is a direct way the school can accommodate the drop in revenue for the upcoming year and he predicts more teachers will leave.
"I have full-time faculty coming to me saying I've been here five years and I'm ready to resign, but they don't qualify for a package, they just want to go. That's how bad it's getting."
Koff said the Conestoga board of governors could have taken a stronger stance and fired the school's president John Tibbits after he made controversial comments directed at Sault College president David Orazietti.
Tibbitts' contract as president is set to expire this September, but there has been no word on a replacement.
A request to speak to Tibbits and Conestoga's administration about the situation was denied.
"Everyone's kind of holding their breath waiting to see what's going to happen this summer, or by the fall, and we'll know better then," Koff said.
Both Arsenault and Koff agree that the way international students are being recruited needs to change and it needs to start from the top down.
"It can't just be any random guy acting as an immigration consultant, putting students in programs where they don't want to be and getting paid a lot of money," Arsenault said.
"The relationship as it currently stands, is fundamentally based on conflict of interest in the monetization of students, rather than the success of students and communities."
International student tuition can be as much as three times that of domestic students.
The lucrative revenue stream led many post-secondary institutions to hire recruiters to work in countries like India without much oversight.
Arsenault, a long-time journalist, recalls a meeting he had with the international department at the college where he asked if any international recruiters have been blacklisted after providing false and misleading information to students.
To his dismay, the college could not point to one single case.
"Of thousands of agents, they couldn't point to a single case of cutting ties with somebody who was outright lying or deceiving those students or with someone like that and that fundamentally has to change," Arsenault said.
"I think there needs to be some sort of internal process where the colleges themselves are making sure students are in the right program and students have the skills to succeed, that students are going where they want to thrive."
For now, the college is treading into uncharted territory as the whole nation watches what its next move will be.
"I think we're at the darkest point before the dawn and the situation will improve," Arsenault said.
"It sounds like a cheesy thing to say, but nobody goes into college teaching for the money; you do it because you believe in your subject and you believe in your students. We need to get back to that."
