Gulcan Barclay

Its a lovely little college thats an eclectic mix of students and some interesting tutors very helpful people on site and deer !

I studied many subjects at Camosun over the years, one credential was for the residential care attendant program. I did well, but there was one instructor that threatened my place in the program due to performance that she perceived as not good, which was untrue. She did this to another man in the program without trying to help improve his ability, instead she tried to, or did, flunk him out of the program. She seemed like she hated masculine men and was using her position of authority to unfairly waste people’s time, energy, and money. When I did my practicum at the Kiwanis Pavilion my grandmother was being abused by staff, and when I reported it to Camosun instructors and Kiwanis pavilion staff, nothing was done to remedy the situation. Years later, I studied anthropology at Camosun and the instructor was teaching things that she read out of a textbook, and when I questioned what she was teaching, she started marking my work as incorrect when it was correct, repeatedly, forcing unwanted social interactions with her after class. I also had a writing instructor that made a joke about abusing children in front of the class, and he thought he was pretty funny and made motions with his hand indicating non-consensual touching on the sly. Years later, I went back to Camosun to study again, but I had to withdraw from the classes early on because of a motor vehicle collision that I was in, but even with a doctor’s note the administration wouldn’t accept it and charged me full price for classes that I barely participated in and am still getting billed for to this day.

The campus is lovely and well Maintenance and the staff are helpful and accommodating. The only downfall is when you go into the main entrance entrance to gain direction, the person does not speak French and I witnessed her getting quite rude to a mother and daughter, who were there to take a test for English and there was no accommodations for them. As a result, the person was rudely, telling them that they were going to be late for the other campus and needed to hurry up and when they indicated they did not know where the bus was or how to get there, because they were new to the city, the woman just sort of shut down and was kind of rude. She made no effort to try to locate anybody else on campus. That may speak French. I stepped up and offered to drive them, and as a student, I understand that this was their one chance to obtain entry, and if they missed this test, they would have not been entered into the school. I found it quite rude that this woman’s job was to direct students and newcomers where they need to go and she may know customer service effort, I have worked 50 years in hotel, industry and hospitality, and I felt this was her way of just pretending she did not want to deal with the issue when clearly, her job is to greet and welcome new students There is a great inclusiveness seen on the campus, and there is a great effort clearly by the college to include first nations and other nationalities, I was disappointed a little bit on how little they offer the Indigenous students place to come together. I have seen in other universities they have a Building set up for the indigenous students inclusive when they are away from their nations and here on this campus it is just a small office with no little feeling of indigenous hospitality because of the lack of space. Possibly the college could provide a larger area for the Indigenous students to come together and study, to hold, smudge, and have an area where they feel included other than a small office area. On another note, I am very impressed with the Indigenous, inclusive, wild herb and plant garden that you would almost miss if you did not know how to identify plants. They have a beautiful Elder that comes and walks through there to identify plants for you and if you’re lucky, you will witness some local Wildlife in the area as well.

Beautiful campuses, great scenery, but that has more to do with the natural environment and building structures. However, when it comes down to knowledgeable staff and guidance their main response is,” go online and good question…let me get back to you.” Everything is technology driven so they can make their budgets. Consequently, that then begs the question why even go to a traditional college or university when I can learn online?. Best thing about this campus are the pool of dating candidates.

Nice compact campus that is easy to navigate. It has the basic amenities that an institution of higher learning should have, but no frills to speak of (except maybe the turtles in the pond in the main stairwell of the Fisher Building). The cafeteria and bookstore are just okay, but the people that work in them are pretty great. All of the teaching and admin staff that I’ve dealt with have been very helpful, too, It’s definitely a very pretty campus that is conveniently located in the city, and is very well-serviced by several different bus routes.