TERRACE, BC – Today, the Coast Mountain College (CMTN) community celebrated its recent network boost and gateway to the BCNET Advanced Network, a high speed, private, dedicated research network that enhances student achievement and gives new tech tools to faculty and students.
“Information technology is critical to our business activities at CMTN,” says President & CEO Ken Burt. “From admissions, employee and student recruiting, finance, payroll, classroom activities, faculty and more – this affects everyone in our college community.”
BCNET is a not-for-profit collaborative shared services organization that offers technology services and solutions that enable world-class research and education in BC.
“Our core service is, and will continue to be, the advanced network that connects our learners, faculty and researchers to all the resources the vast expanse of the province, country and the world has to offer,” says BCNET President & CEO, Bala Katherisan. “In recent years we have assembled an unparalleled portfolio of services aimed at improving efficiency, increasing capacity, reducing risk and promoting knowledge and expertise in information technology.”
As Coast Mountain College grows its applied research activities, its faculty will have the added benefit of connectivity and bandwidth to do their work and connect to research network. This partnership also benefits students in important ways through improving accessibility through CMTN’s libraries.
“We have increasingly moved to online resources and have a large collection of e-journals and e-books,” says Colin Elliott, Director of Applied Research, Libraries and Emerging Technology at CMTN. “One of our biggest roles of the library is to help students connect to and understand the digital world. All of these things require a stable connection and a lot of bandwidth.”
“From our seat at the table, we strive to continue our technological advancement through initiatives such as EduRoam, EduCloud and the CANARIE Joint Security Project, while remaining grounded in Indigenous principles to guide our path,” says CMTN IT Director, Marc Snelling. In an increasingly digital economy, we hope to arm the workforce of tomorrow with the technology skills to serve Northern BC and beyond.”
Quick facts
BCNET offers:
- Private, dedicated network for higher education and research
- Interconnects CMTN’s campus sites in B.C.
- Interconnects CMTN campus to 186 colleges, institutes, research universities, federal and provincial labs and research institution sites in B.C.
- Connects CMTN’s sites to 12 provinces and territories through CANARIE’s national research and education network, which, in turn, links to over 100 global research and education networks.
- Canada’s National Research and Education Network (NREN) is essential for Canadian participation in data-intensive, collaborative research. The enormous volume of data that is transmitted over the network, and the need to connect with international peers and resources available only through global NREN partners, positions Canada’s NREN as critical 21st Century infrastructure supporting home-grown knowledge creation and innovation.
Media Contact
Sarah Zimmerman
Executive Director, Communications
Coast Mountain College
Cell: 250-641-2206
szimmerman@coastmountaincollege.ca