President of Sault College responds to 'personal attacks' by Conestoga College president

The president of Sault College in Sault Ste. Marie says he's "shocked" that another public college president would lash out with personal attacks on the issue of the international student cap.

David Orazietti was reacting to Conestoga College president John Tibbits's comments made Tuesday at an event, where Tibbits criticized Sault College and was heard using a derogatory term to describe Orazietti when it came to the issue of international students, according to a report from CambridgeToday.

"I'm shocked that a public college president, with whom I've never had a conversation with, would resort to lashing out with personal attacks and frankly misinformation," Orazietti told CBC News.

"I'm not going to engage in this type of behaviour." 

Orazietti said his school has seen modest growth in recent years. The school currently has 1,000 international students and 1,400 domestic students at its Sault Ste. Marie campus. The school's Toronto campus, which is in partnership with Trios College, has 2,800 students.

"It represents 4.5 per cent of the international students in the public and private partnership and well below the 7,500 cap the province has in place," he said.

Tibbits comments at the event were made in response to Orazietti's comments he made earlier on a podcast called Inside the Village about the large number of international students Conestoga admits every year.

"My comments were related more to the situation at Conestoga. I think it's a shared belief that any college bringing over 30,000 international students in such a short period of time, it would be unreasonable that there be adequate housing and jobs in the community," Orazietti said. 

Tibbits told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition Wednesday he regrets using the term, but did not regret his criticism, adding the college has expanded its student residences across the eight communities it serves.

"In the last two years we've added seven residences and our students don't all live here, they live all over Ontario," he said, adding the college plans to announce additional student housing projects next week.

Investigation by Ontario Auditor General needed, president says

Orazietti said there should be an independent investigation by the Ontario Auditor General into the operations at Conestoga College, but would not say if he would call for the investigation.

He reiterated that it is unacceptable for a public college president to make personal attacks and that the federal government's cap on the number of international students coming into the country were in part to address "circumstances exactly like what is happening at Conestoga."

"It's well known in the sector that Conestoga College is a bad actor," he said.