The Shuttering of Centennial College Public Relations program: How it impacts Public Relations education and how the industry can save it?
By Sanjeev Wignarajah
How do you say goodbye to a campus that’s a second home to you? You think about the good times, connections made, and the skills taught which culminates into a better storyteller. When news broke that Public Relations was one of the programs suspended in the wake of cuts to post-secondary education, along with the closure of Centennial College Story Arts Centre by summer 2026. I was in a state of shock and sadness. It has been my home away from home after graduating from high school in Fall 2012. It was a different environment. Its small, intimate campus makes it easier to find classrooms and the sleek architecture allows natural light to flow through the building.
I didn’t know what to expect when I was enrolled in the public relations program in Winter 2023. I hit the ground running learning about:
- Event planning
- A.C.E. formula
- Primary Research
- Secondary Research
- PESO model (Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned)
- Influencer relations
- Client collaboration for media campaign
- Internal Communications, External Communications, Crisis Communications
- Data analysis
- Media monitoring and media reporting
- Presentation skills
- Business For Corporate Communications
- Writing & Copy Editing
If these walls could talk. It would tell you the lessons learned, assignments (mostly group assignments), event planning, and presentations. That and working with real clients for creating a media campaign. The two semesters I was in the program, the more I was immersed given my background in journalism. One of the highlights of Centennial College’s Public Relations program is working on a media campaign for a client. It was a team effort. Months of research, drafting a communications plan and collaborating with our client and updating our progress to our professors. CityNews Toronto covered our campaign. It was a surreal experience.
The suspension of the public relations program sends a rippling shockwave to the profession as students who wish to study the PR program will look elsewhere, either in the city or across Canada as the nation faces a post-secondary education crisis because of the Federal Government’s cap on international students and the Provincial Government’s years of underfunding post-secondary education.
What the public relations industry can do is to advocate the provincial and federal government to invest more into post-secondary education because education is vital to strengthen the country’s economy and each and every student willsucceed in their respective careers. Being a PR professional is more than informing leaders and the public. It’s being an agent of change. A change to do better for the betterment of society.
The memories will live on at Story Arts Centre. Once a storyteller, always a storyteller.
Sanjeev Wignarajah is a freelance writer and photographer working with select clients and publications. He has a background in journalism and public relations from Centennial College.