As of June 16, 2025, VIU has appointed Dr. Dennis Johnson as our new interim president for the next two years. VIU’s former president of six years, Dr. Deborah Saucier, stepped down on April 4, 2025, after which the university’s Chief Financial Officer and Vice-President of Administration, Emily Huner, took over the role as Acting President for the time being.

During the transition period between presidents, drastic changes were made. This included linking unpaid parking tickets to students’ outstanding fees, which withheld official transcripts, as well as multiple program cancellations and suspensions. Although the parking ticket violation policy was fought hard and shut down by the VIUSU, the dismissal of certain programs remained.

With the program cancellations and suspensions, it is unknown whether or not more programs will face the same outcome. The new President states that VIU’s immediate concern is to bolster numbers for programs that struggle with enrollment. “But there may be programs that weren’t on that list that maybe can’t be turned around,” he explains.

Our newly appointed President and Vice Chancellor, Dr. Johnson, has come in optimistic about healing VIU’s financial crisis as well as repairing relationships within the university.

Dr. Johnson has been in the field of post-secondary education for over 30 years and is coming from a previous presidency at the College of New Caledonia. Coming into VIU, Dr. Johnson brings plenty of experience and knowledge into this new role. “I was in the sector a long time and even since I retired a year and a half ago from my previous presidency, I’ve been consulting, so I was never completely away from the sector. So, again, it’s new and old again,” Dr. Johnson says. “[With] VIU, I have lots to learn but many of the challenges, the issues, and the positives are quite familiar.”

He also has an extensive education that will benefit VIU. Dr. Johnson has a Bachelor of Adult Education from Brock University, a Master of Education in Post-Secondary Studies from Memorial University of Newfoundland, as well as a PhD in Educational Administration from the University of Saskatchewan. He has also held leadership roles at Thompson Rivers University and Saskatchewan Polytechnic.

Coming into this new position, there have been intense challenges.

VIU, along with many other universities, is also struggling with international student enrolment. The issue, Dr. Johnson explains, is due to visa processing times, as well as overall visa denials for international students. This means that students are struggling to obtain visas on time or at all to come into Canada.

In addition to visa challenges, tighter restrictions on study permits are negatively impacting international student enrolment. Immigration News Canada states that Canada is expecting a 70 percent decrease in new international students due to tighter restrictions on study permits allotted. Only 45,551 study permits were distributed in 2025, versus a whopping 103,347 in 2024. This is partially due to permits being issued to students already enrolled in Canadian universities in need of an extension. This cap began in 2024, creating additional barriers for international students.

Canada is not the shining star that it used to be and it is perhaps not as welcoming as it once was, as far as the ability to obtain a student visa successfully.

“The applications are down across the board significantly, but then on top of that, of the ones that do apply and are given an offer letter, the acceptance rates [of visas] from the federal government are also down. So, it’s kind of a double hit,” Dr. Johnson explains.

Now let’s discuss the elephant in the room: VIU’s current financial situation.

Dr. Johnson states that he “was brought in as an interim president to try and turn around our financial picture and get VIU healthy again.” Dr. Johnson has a term of up to two years as of June 16, 2025.

His number one job for the time being is to get VIU back on track to a better state than it has been in for six years.

To be clear, VIU is not in debt but rather has a deficit.

“Up until recently, there was a reserve, but it’s a structural deficit rather than a debt. The money that was in the bank, the reserve, has been used up,” the President explains. “So, it's no different than if you’re going to school and you got a savings account, you’re working part-time, but you’re spending more than you earn.”

Dr. Johnson states that in order for this issue to be resolved, VIU needs to get their spending in line with their actual income.

The biggest impact is that enrolment continues to decrease and the international students are part of that decline. This means that programs such as the Master of Business Administration (MBA) will be seeing less cohorts due to this issue. Enrolment has been a challenge for the past couple of years, and Dr. Johnson states that although international students have not been a huge part of the student body at VIU, they have been an important part.

In the past, the VIUSU has stated that they need more transparency and accountability around decision making when it comes to the president. Dr. Johnson hopes to start off their new relationship with open and honest communication. “I certainly plan to be available and have lots of good conversations. Even if what I have to say is not always light, I’m happy to have that conversation,” Dr. Johnson says. In his previous presidency, he met regularly with the student union and thinks it is a vital component of his role as president.

Along with the Vice-President of Students, Carolyn Russell, he’s started to have those conversations with student leaders such as Sarah Webber, Organizer Students’ Advocate, and James Bowen, Executive Director from the VIUSU, to ensure that all needs and levels of communication are being met.

Since being put in this new role, Dr. Johnson has made sure to come in and listen to the needs of the faculty, students, and staff. “I’m still very much in information-gathering mode. Like I said earlier, I’ve had the chance to meet with a lot of leaders, senior leaders, but I’ve not had a lot of interaction with faculty, with students, with staff, and other stakeholders,” Dr. Johnson says. He states that any actions required will still need to be held off for a few more weeks and will start to be discussed in September.

Although this is a tough time for VIU, Dr. Johnson believes that things can change for the better. He’s excited to be able to interact with students across campus and integrate himself with VIU. “I’m really looking forward to talking to as many students as possible and certainly have a good open dialogue with the student union but also with students themselves. If they see me on campus and they want to say hello, I’d be really pleased.”

This may be the change that VIU needs to get back on track and continue to provide a safe and welcoming learning environment for all students.