New Conestoga campus in Waterloo named after Tibbits
WATERLOO — Conestoga College’s new campus in Waterloo has been named after its leader of the past three decades.
Dr. John Tibbits came aboard as president in 1987 when enrolment was declining and the college was in a deficit, noted Maureen Cowan, chair and chief executive of Princeton Holdings Ltd. and chair of the Cowan Foundation Board, which contributed $4 million toward the $58-million expansion project that was unveiled Thursday evening at a grand opening gala.
“When you look at how far Conestoga College has come, it’s truly phenomenal, and I don’t think anybody would disagree that John Tibbits’s leadership has been the primary driver behind Conestoga’s development and success,” Cowan said.
In his address, Tibbits noted that Conestoga College has grown by almost 50 per cent over the past four years and is now home to more than 16,500 full-time students, with 7,000 students from 80 countries around the world.
The new Waterloo campus, which envelopes the former University Heights Secondary School on University Avenue, will provide 150,000 additional square feet of classroom, lab and student space, with programming mainly focused on IT, culinary arts and new Canadians.
“I affectionately call this place the college that John built, and it is for this reason that I am very, very pleased to announce the decision to have the recognition of Waterloo’s campus in John Tibbits’s name as a lasting gesture of our sincere thanks for your profound contributions to Conestoga College and to this community,” said Cowan.
The college’s board of governors kept the announcement confidential, according to Tibbits, who said he’d only learned of the gesture a short time beforehand.
“It means a lot,” he said, “but there’s a lot of people who had a lot to do with this college being where it is. It’s not just me, but I’d be dishonest to say the recognition is not nice to have.”
Tibbits said Cowan contributed the single largest gift in the college’s 50-year history and will be recognized by having its name on the welcome centre that provides access to programming and services for full- and part-time students, newcomers to Canada and individuals seeking career counselling or job search support.
The college has spread its wings in recent years in Kitchener, Cambridge, Brantford, Guelph and, most recently, Milton, offering programs from upgrading through to degrees and graduate certificates, Tibbits said.
Finding skilled workers remains a huge issue for employers, he added, citing a new statistic that 400,000 jobs across Canada are “going wanting” or unfilled.
He expects the international student population at Conestoga to continue growing.
Lydia Chudleigh, chair of the college’s board of governors, said the expansion project was a key component of strategic vision for building capacity to address community, workforce and industry needs.
The current property provides the college with 12 acres for the same price (about $6 million) that the former six-acre site on King Street sold for back in 2006, Tibbits noted.
“So that was a good move for us,” he said. “It enabled us to grow here on this site.”
The expansion is expected to accommodate 2,500 to 3,000 students more than the approximately 700 post-secondary students and 2,500 apprenticeship students who had been attending classes at the former high school.
Tibbits said the college intends to bring all of its IT programs to the Waterloo location.