EDMONTON – Following last week’s provincial budget, University of Alberta faculty heads are being asked to cut their operating budgets by 20 per cent, according to a leaked internal email.
NDP Advanced Education Critic Rachel Notley revealed the leaked memo Wednesday morning, which was sent from the University of Alberta’s Dean of Education.
In the email, Fern Snart, Dean for the Faculty of Education stated faculties have been asked to submit a plan on how to cut 20 percent from their operating budgets between 2014 and 2016, including a plan to generate 10 percent of that back in revenue.
The University’s Acting Provost, Martin Ferguson-Pell, says the email was meant as an exercise for Deans, because the institution is looking for big ideas on how to thoughtfully implement cuts.
In total, the University is facing a $65 million shortfall, according to Ferguson-Pell. He says the university had planned for a two percent increase in funding, but instead saw a nearly seven percent cut.
“Cuts of this magnitude haven’t occurred within the last 10 years or so,” Ferguson-Pell explained. “There is a lot of fear, a lot of fear for people’s jobs, a lot of fear for the things that people value greatly at the U of A- their fields of research and fields of teaching.”
Ferguson-Pell says the university has not yet decided where the cuts will come from.
“We’re just looking at really simple measures, like an immediate change in the way we fund travel. We’re looking at some across the board cuts, across the faculties. We’re cutting back on some of the expenditures in central administration.”
He says once decisions on cuts have been made, they likely won’t be implemented until the 2014-2015 financial year.
“The things that are going to result in the major cuts that are necessary in order to balance that budget are going to be things that we have to work out, and it’s probably going to take us a year to achieve that.”
Meanwhile, Notley says cuts to advanced education represent an “extremely unfortunate broken promise by Alison Redford.” She worries about the negative impact cuts of this magnitude will have on students’ education.
“It is going to fundamentally undermine the credibility of our university system across the country. It’s going to hurt students and it’s going to hurt their families, and it is essentially requiring students and their families and, frankly, Alberta’s reputation, to pay the cost of this government’s failure to manage its fiscal situation.”
Redford says it was a tough budget however, maintains the U of A has made administrative decisions that don’t reflect what the government has asked it to do.
“I think the University of Alberta is an independent administration that can make the decisions that it wants to make, as to how to deal with what we’ve provided them,” Redford explained. “I’m simply saying that if they choose to look at a 20 percent cut over three years, I don’t think that that is a reflection of what our budget said.”
Another cause for concern for critics is the fact that the Minister of Advanced Education, Thomas Lukaszuk, is not present to comment on the cuts to his department. Lukaszuk is currently in Vietnam doing charity work.
“It is disrespectful to everybody in this sector and to every Albertan, that this minister cannot be bothered to be here at this time,” Notley said.
Lukaszuk says he will be back at work Monday.
University of Lethbridge President Dr. Mike Mahon has also responded to the funding cuts announced in last week’s budget. You can read his statement on the University of Lethbridge’s website.
With files from Vassy Kapelos, Global News.
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