Two things are abundantly clear after this morning's news conference in Athabasca University's Edmonton offices:

1. Alberta's NDP government is determined the perennially financially troubled distance education university will survive as a viable post-secondary institution
2. Athabasca University’s headquarters and the bulk of its operations will remain in the Town of Athabasca, about 130 kilometres north of Alberta’s capital city

Just how all this is to be done remains to be seen. Likewise, while it appears quite clear AU's mandate as a distance-education and open-learning institution will remain similar to what it is today, that too will have to wait for the outcome of the sustainability review that was the official reason for this morning's announcement.

It seems odd to refer to Frederick Bernard Henry as "retiring" -- the outspoken Roman Catholic Bishop of Calgary was never very retiring, even though it was announced yesterday that he is.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of my father, Dr. John LeRoy Climenhaga.

Dad, who died in 2008, is best known as an astrophysicist, and his name is most often used nowadays in connection with the respected astronomy program at the University of Victoria, and in particular with UVic's Climenhaga Observatory.

But my Dad's strong belief in and support for the value of public education -- and that included public post-secondary education in all fields, including the arts and pure sciences like his area of studies for which there was no obvious commercial application -- is my topic for today.

To jaw-jaw is generally held to be better than to war-war, as Winston Churchill observed, but there are times when a short, sharp correction is what a situation demands.

Alberta's New Democratic government now faces just such a circumstance in the case of the two Edmonton-area private Baptist schools openly defying the government on the matter of the Jim Prentice-era Tory law, supported back in the day by the NDP, that requires schools to permit students to form gay-straight alliances and other types of anti-bullying clubs.