Interesting post. I once thought building a University here would help too.

I still think the challenge is not to build a university but to have ACCESS to University programs and degrees. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think uOttawa only offered a limited number of courses at the Cornwall campus — ie: psychology. And if memory serves me right, you weren’t able to complete your degree in Cornwall — I believe only the first 2 years could be finished here in town, but I may be misinformed. That poses a challenge

Education is indeed competive. However; I think a small city like Cornwall could use that competitiveness to its advantage. Think outside the box like this:

1. If the education market is competive, would top notch universities not want to expand their reach, while not necessarily having to build the massive infrastructure (classes, dorms, sport facilities,ect)in order to have and edge over other top notch schools?

With the present amount of technology, I don’t see why they would not want to set-up satellite campuses that would comprise of an auditorium with video conferencing capabilities. Student could attend classes the same as those attending classes in Ottawa, and with the use of two way video/audio conferencing student would able to participate in class discussions and debates.

Would the system need some fine tuning, new systems to organize, collaborate, and delegate schedules, homework, assignments — absolutely. But that is the challenge, that is why we pay out city officials 100k+ a year….to think up solutions to these challenges and get the ball rolling in the right direction.

These are the questions and challenges I want our city council, our city’s econ dept, and other departments to work on.

Stop saying Cornwall is a retirement town — it’s not! But it can become one by default if we don’t make the necessary changes.