The new president of the University of Alberta officially took the position this week, taking the opportunity to reaffirm a plan he has pitched that would see a major reduction in faculties at the school.
With millions in grants and funding expected to be lost, new U of A president and vice-chancellor Bill Flanagan said the plan is about finding efficiencies.
His plan, called University of Alberta for Tomorrow, is expected to save the school $120 million by 2022.
“This will enable us to stabilize our financial position, secure financial sustainability and enable us to put the maximum amount of our resources into teaching and research, which is a core mission of the university,” Flanagan said Wednesday following his installation ceremony.
The plan includes an administrative and academic restructuring, with a proposal to reduce the number of faculties from 18 to nine.
“We know that drives a lot of cost and a lot of inefficiency in terms of administrative structures,” Flanagan said.
“We want to engage the whole university community in what’s going to be probably one of the most important discussions about the future of the U of A in many, many years.”
However, the associations representing both academic and non-academic staff at the university said they haven’t been included in any of the planning.
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“We requested a seat at the table, because the university has a history of working together collaboratively on these things,” said Ricardo Acuña, president of the Association of Academic Staff at the U of A.
“We were denied a seat at the table.”
Acuña said the only consultation he’s been a part of was through slideshow presentations.
He’s concerned about inevitable job losses.
“We’re a university — our biggest cost area is people, and how do you save $120 million without losing people?” Acuña said.
“We can’t even say to our members — we can’t even say to the professors and librarians and researchers — ‘It’s OK, we know it’ll be fine,’ because we don’t know it’ll be fine.”
It’s a similar situation for the U of A Non-Academic Staff Association, according to its president.
“We have in the past always been consulted, particularly with the major changes about this type of thing,” Elizabeth Johannson said.
“Unfortunately, at this point, what has been characterized as consultation has consisted of receiving some PowerPoint presentations.”
Johannson acknowledged there are many unknowns, but for support staff at the university, that’s a huge concern.
“There are so many cuts happening already,” she said. “People are seeing the person who used to work beside them has lost their job, but the work hasn’t changed — so they’re expected to pick up a whole lot of extra work — and it’s really unsustainable.”
Both associations said they recognize this is all being driven by decimating funding cuts, but still would have liked to have been included in meaningful conversations as it’s their staff on the front lines.
“It’s frustrating because it’s members on the ground that have a lot of information about where things can be streamlined, where things can be improved,” Johannson said.
“The cuts that are happening, the size and speed of them, are beyond anything that has happened at any universities anywhere in the world.”
The president of the U of A Students’ Union has been part of the consultation. Joel Agarwal sits on the academic restructuring working group.
“Generally, we are pretty optimistic about these changes,” Agarwal said. “We are going to be doing thorough consultation to ensure the student voices are prioritized and included throughout this process.”
Talks around the U of A for Tomorrow plan started in late May. Final proposals regarding the organization of faculties are expected to move through regular governance channels for approvals in December.
Acuña said it’s not enough time.
According to Flanagan, a report will be released next week, reviewing the process so far and looking at proposed restructuring scenarios.
“I have no doubt we can achieve financial sustainability and be in an even stronger position to continue to lead in teaching and research in Alberta and beyond,” Flanagan said.
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