Record Crowd for Last Kingston Branch Luncheon of the Summer
Article and Photos by 25366 Mike Shewfelt
More than thirty members of the Kingston Branch of the RMC Club met in the Senior Staff Mess for the last Branch luncheon of the summer. With next month’s luncheon heralding a return to winter dress, the Branch members made the most of the beautiful weather as they mingled, ate lunch in the Mess and then received a briefing on the state of the Academic side of the College given by Dr. Joel Sokolsky, RMCC principal.
In front of a challenging crowd that included two former commandants (3572 Frank Norman and 4459 Ed Murray), two former principals (H3948 John Plant and H24263 John Scott Cowan) and former Speaker of the House S149 Peter Milliken, Dr. Sokolsky spoke to concerns that those present may have had after the extensive media coverage the College has received in the last few months. “The semester that started this week was the one we planned for. We have a full slate of courses,” he said. “In discussions with Ottawa, we made the point that the lead time we had been given was not enough to make changes in time for this semester, so the one we have is the one we were planning on.”
Dr. Sokolsky emphasized that even with the financial cut backs, the College is progressing with new academic initiatives. “One program that we are moving forward with,” he explained, “is an internship program with the federal government whereby deserving Cadets can spend a semester working on Parliament Hill. Right now we can’t respond to all of the requests we’re getting from Ottawa for Cadets to do internships.”
While he could not speak in detail on the future of the College, Dr. Sokolsky did comment on the difficulties in finding a workable solution. “It’s all about balance. On any given issue you have you three perspectives at play: the academic, the military, and the university. How do you balance those…? It’s not easy, but we do it, and we have to do it, every day.”
Photos from the event:
