A co-author of the report which recommended Sir Wilfred Grenfell College be given university status is frustrated at the lack of progress on the file.

The report written by John Kelly, professor emeritus at University College Dublin and executive director of the Ireland Canada University Foundation, and fellow Irish academic John Davies, was submitted to the provincial government in 2006.

Since then, Kelly has been monitoring the situation, but said it’s been a lot of talk and little action.

“I am very surprised and very disappointed that after three years, nothing seems to be happening,” Kelly told The Western Star via telephone from Ireland. “We keep hearing government is preparing legislation and all that, but there’s been no movement at all. All (Premier) Danny Williams has to do is sign it, call it a university and let’s get on with advertising for a president.”

Waiting for Memorial University to appoint its president first may only create an unnecessary sense of inferiority should a president of Grenfell soon be named, according to Kelly. He also dismissed Education Minister Darin King’s recent comments that certain organizational measures need to be in place at Grenfell before legislation can be amended to grant Grenfell the autonomy it seeks.

“That’s an excuse for doing nothing,” said Kelly. “If you are going to wait until all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed, you’ll be waiting for the next 10 years. They shouldn’t wait another 24 hours to get this done.

“We (Kelly and Davies) spent lot of time there when we evaluated Grenfell and we reckoned that, with the structure it had and the academic programs it had, it was effectively a university already.”

There are some basic structural changes required, acknowledged Kelly, such as the appointment of Grenfell’s own senate and president and the establishment of a new budget. However, he said, it should not take years to put those necessary ingredients together.

He also hoped the plan is still to grant full university status, while retaining affiliation with Memorial, and not just to grant Grenfell more autonomy than it currently has.

While Kelly is concerned, he said the residents of Corner Brook and western Newfoundland should be even more insistent that progress be made on this file.

“In the very competitive world of higher education today, if Grenfell is going to survive and thrive and attract more students — both federally and internationally, it must have status as a university,” said Kelly. “Also, it’s been recognized throughout the world that small universities in small localities can be the engine for economic development. I think Corner Brook and the whole western part of Newfoundland would benefit enormously if Grenfell was made a small university and had a high-powered executive team working to drive it forward to take its place, not only in the Canadian university world, but the international university world.”

It is important for the community leaders of Corner Brook and the surrounding region to also be a part of the governing entity which would be responsible for running a university campus at Corner Brook, added Kelly.

“A small university there acting as a powerhouse of economic development, as well as academic development, could put new life into the whole community,” he said.