Reaching Out to the Community:
The Cameco Access Program for Engineering and Science in
the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Engineering
David F. Cowan
College of Arts and Science, University of Saskatchewan
Abstract
In 1997, the College of Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan established CAPES, the Cameco Access Program for
Engineering and Science. The program’s mission was to improve access to engineering and science education for students from
Saskatchewan’s north and other remote locations. It involved a combination of initiatives designed to improve awareness of the
opportunities that a science education affords, better prepare students for the rigours of university study, and ease the transition to
campus life.
In establishing initiatives like CAPES, a number of complex issues arise for the university and the community at large.
In this presentation I will discuss some of these issues, but I will also describe how CAPES, in combination with other programs
and initiatives at the University of Saskatchewan, has changed attitudes at the university. In doing so, it has helped the university
extend and strengthen its partnership with the Aboriginal peoples of the province, and thus renew the commitment of “the people’s
university” to be the university of all of Saskatchewan.
