The Supplemental Learning (SL) program began in 2004, the fourth university in Canada to offer peer-led support initiatives of this kind. Today, there are more than 30 of these programs across the country, offering an auxiliary, community-based academic resource for post-secondary students.
According to their 2024/2025 annual report, TRU’s SL program supported 24 single-semester courses and demonstrated marked academic improvement for students, with a GPA (grade point average) increase of around 17 per cent compared to non-SL students. Program participant feedback is often positive, with many touting its necessity, effectiveness and impact on their academic careers and futures.
Despite this, SL is the latest program potentially on the chopping block due to the university’s recent budget restructuring.
“When I first heard it, it was almost like a rumour,” said SL co-ordinator Elizabeth Templeman while speaking with The Omega. “I heard they were going to close it, and I got really upset, and then really depressed and then I started fighting. I didn’t want to tell my team until I knew more.”
Soon enough, the SL budget was significantly constrained, and there was no hiding it. The team, with its 25 peer leaders, heard talk about the shutdown via email.
“[Templeman] warned us about the budget cuts,” said SL peer leader Chidinma Ugbaja. “I was just like, ‘Okay, budget cuts. That’s okay.’ And then I see this email about the closure, and I was like, ‘Whoa, what’s happening?’ It kind of broke my heart.”
The cuts were expected, at least internally. TRU has been dealing with the fallout of reduced international student enrollment for the past few years, forced to make tough financial decisions. Regardless of what choices are made, someone will likely be unhappy. But shutting down a pioneer student support program feels like a confusing choice for many.
“I think it’s really frustrating,” said Kristiana Green, a psychology student and SL leader. “And I think it shows a lack of understanding about the program.”
The SL program primarily supports first-year courses, offering study sessions and exam reviews led by a peer who previously took the course and performed well. More than just a way to break down difficult concepts and catch up on schoolwork (though SL does plenty of that), the sessions also build the study and organizational habits of participating students, giving them the skills and confidence to carry themselves through their education.
And in every practical sense, it works. The program has not only provided statistical proof of its effectiveness, but it is also sustained by it. Students who have passed through the program have themselves become SL leaders, preaching its successes and assisting other students in need of similar support.
“The program definitely changed my mindset,” Ugbaja said. “I came here just telling myself, ‘let’s get this over with.’ I already had a degree, and I just wanted a better job. Then I discovered through this program that I could want more than that.”
“Leaders encourage other students to become leaders,” Green said. “That’s how I became one. I think it’s really cool because you get the help you need, and then you get into a position where you give that same help to others.”
Program leaders today come from a long line of leaders over the past 20-plus years, many of whom have passed on their knowledge and tricks of the trade. For Templeman, it is a family. Older leaders train newer recruits, who train interested students during sessions. If SL is axed, it stands to reason that this cycle will be broken. Thus, many in the program believe that the cost of rebuilding the program sometime in the future will ultimately be higher than keeping it alive.
“They have to think of this as a little investment,” Ugbaja said. “I feel like they should, for once, maybe consider quality over quantity.”
Since hearing the rumours, the program has struggled to tell fact from fiction and to get a picture of where they stand. According to some, communication between the university and SL has been abysmal, if at all.
Templeman expressed surprise at the little effort put into direct communication with her.
“I find that shocking, because I’m the only one who really understands it, except my leaders,” she said.
Many in the program, including Templeman herself, believe this situation arose from the coordinator’s decision to exit the university. When retirement incentives were offered to staff and faculty last year, Templeman, who is 72 and had already been planning her retirement, took it. She’d been hoping that co-coordinator Michelle Raglin, who was an SL leader during her time, would take over to lead the program. Instead, she feels, her departure served as the prelude to SL’s current speculative status.
“I never would have retired if I knew I was going to compromise the program,” Templeman said. “I would’ve worked until I died.”
Shutdown or not, Templeman’s mark in TRU student life cannot be understated. The supplemental learning program was the first to offer honoraria—a way for students to earn money through on-campus jobs. Today, hundreds of positions provide students a way to contribute to their community and get compensated for it.
In correspondence with The Omega mid-February, TRU said rumours about the future of the program are just that: rumours.
“Thompson Rivers University has no current plans to reduce or eliminate the Supported Learning Program. There have not been budget cuts in the 2025/26 year. In fact, the program has had its highest number of learning leaders in recent years, with 23 on the team. One senior member of the Supported Learning team is retiring on June 31, 2026; however, no other changes have been announced or are planned at this time,” TRU said.
As the program continues to fight for its place on campus, it’s difficult to know where the cards will lie. Though budget cuts are understandable, many hope that TRU will consider downsizing rather than a complete shutdown.