Bulletin
CapU – ḵálax̱-ay Campus Closure
December 12, 2025
To: All MoveUP Members at CapU
As many of you have likely already heard, Capilano University announced late this afternoon that it is planning to shut down the ḵálax̱-ay campus next year.
Capilano University was originally founded as a regional public institution, created to serve communities immediately northwest of Vancouver that were historically excluded from local access to post-secondary education. In 1975, the then college expanded that mandate by beginning to offer college courses in Sechelt, establishing a permanent presence on the Sunshine Coast.
For nearly five decades, the Sunshine Coast campus in Sechelt has been part of the local community, providing education to local residents and anchoring the institution’s relationship with the Coast and with the shíshálh Nation. While Capilano College had been offering classes on the Sunshine Coast since the 1970s, that role was codified in law in 2008. When Capilano was redesignated as a special purpose teaching university, provincial regulation under the University Act explicitly required the University to serve the Sunshine Coast, including Sechelt, as part of its defined regional mandate.
Yesterday, the University advised the Union for the first time that it intended to publicly announce the permanent closure of the ḵálax̱-ay campus today, with a planned shutdown date of April 24, 2026. The Union was given less than twenty-four hours’ notice of this announcement and no prior opportunity for meaningful consultation with impacted members.
This approach reflects a broader pattern of decision-making by the University, where major restructuring initiatives are developed behind closed doors and then presented to workers and communities as predetermined outcomes rather than proposals open to discussion.
For years, MoveUP has warned that chronic underfunding of the post-secondary sector and deliberate government policy choices were pushing institutions toward instability and an increasing reliance on international enrolment. The Province’s recent announcement of a rushed sustainability review, one that explicitly excludes any discussion of increased funding, confirms that workers are once again being asked to absorb the consequences of decisions they did not make.
Following immediate Union intervention, the University has now committed to issuing proper Section 54 notice today in relation to the campus closure. The parties will hold a preliminary Section 54 meeting next week to begin that required process.
The University’s announcement is part of a broader erosion of public post-secondary education driven by decades of underfunding and a reliance on short-term fixes instead of real investment. MoveUP members did not create this crisis, and we will not allow them to be treated as collateral damage. We will continue to communicate as more information becomes available and as the Section 54 process unfolds.
In solidarity,
Daniel Storms, Union Representative
Nathan Beausoleil, Senior Union Representative