Mike Shouldice takes over as Nunavut Arctic College president

Nunavut Arctic College’s new president Mike Shouldice, shown here during Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s brief visit to Iqaluit. (FILE PHOTO)

Michael Shouldice will continue to serve as president of Nunavut Arctic College, its board of governors and Nunavut’s Premier Eva Aariak confirmed March 7.

Shouldice, who has worked at Arctic College since 1987, was an instructor and Kivalliq Campus dean before becoming the college’s acting president for the past nine months.

“Mike’s commitment to post-secondary education, students and community in Nunavut has spanned almost four decades,” Aariak said in a joint news release on Shouldice’s appointment. “His dedication and leadership, particularly in language and culture, are admirable and will serve him well as president of Nunavut Arctic College.”

Shouldice has also been active in the Kivalliq Mine Training Society.

“His hard work in building strong connections between programs and jobs in industry is commendable,” Daniel Shewchuk, the minister responsible for Nunavut Arctic College, said. “As a college, we are well positioned to play a stronger role in Nunavut’s growing economy.”

Shouldice’s appointment becomes effective immediately. He will continue to work from Rankin Inlet, the news release said.

“Mike has ensured that there is a balance between northern and southern learning expectations and brought Inuit culture into the forefront of our adult and post secondary education systems,” said Frank Pearce, the chairperson of the college’s board of governors. “Mike has the full confidence of the board of governors and we know he will lead the college well as it moves forward as a degree-granting institution.”

Shouldice appeared before the Nunavut legislature’s committee of the whole March 7, when he spoke about his vision for the college, which includes an language and culture centre.

“The plan of the college in the future is to look at a centre of excellence for language and education,” he said. “What we’re looking at right now is taking the assets that already exist in the college such as the Nunavut Research Institute; for example the research capacity of that with students, there is an oral history project in Igloolik, which would contribute to that. We have the Nunavut Teacher Education Program, which is training teachers to teach in Inuktitut…we’re trying to do is to develop a plan that would best coordinate all of those assets for us and then allow us to tie our publication section of the college with our research section and with our training section.”