EDMONTON – More information about the University of Alberta’s institutional, faculty, and unit operating budgets for the next two years was presented at a meeting Monday afternoon.
The main item on the agenda for Monday’s General Faculties Council meeting was a budget update from Acting Provost Martin Ferguson-Pell and Vice President Phyllis Clark.
In August, U of A President Indira Samarasekera announced the significant cost-cutting measures the university would have to take to try to balance the budget by April 2015.
Ferguson-Pell and Clark laid out the 2014-2015 provisional cuts in a power point presentation.
The acting provost outlined how the cuts have already been passed onto the deans of the university.
Cuts to faculties range from 6 per cent to 7.5 per cent for next school year.
Ferguson-Pell talked about ways faculties can mitigate the cuts, including boosting enrollment for international students, adding new programs for mature learners, and coming up with entrepreneurial ideas. The presentation indicated faculties could “mitigate cuts up to two per cent by approved revenue related plans.”
“What we can’t predict at the moment is where we will be standing when we get to 2015-2016 and beyond,” said Ferguson-Pell. “So we have to bear in mind that there is still a likelihood that further cuts could have to be applied.”
That, he said, would depend on revenues, expenditures, and what the 2014-2015 budget looks like.
“I think it doesn’t necessarily benefit the institution when these really skewed incentive structures are made up, like saying ‘admit more international students and you can get more cash,’” commented Students’ Union President Petros Kusmu, “For me, at the end of the day, when we admit our students, it should be primarily on merit, and it shouldn’t necessarily be on who can bring the most cash.”
“These are very difficult decisions,” said Samarasekera back in August.
“In order to be balanced by April 1, 2015, we have to reduce our core academic expenses by seven per cent in 2014-2015, our core support for the academy… by eight per cent in ‘14-’15, and we will then take two more years to ensure that we have balance beyond that, given wage settlements, given inflation, we will have to plan for two more years of cuts of two per cent,” she revealed in August.
Samarasekera explained the U of A was already dealing with an operational deficit of about $19 million of its own, when it learned it would be receiving roughly $56 million less from the province than it expected.
Earlier in October, 77 professors and 44 other staff took part in the voluntary severance program, which will save up to $14 million a year. However, Ferguson-Pell admitted it likely won’t be enough to stop future job cuts. The program will require a one-time payout of $16.7 million.
Since announcing the budget cuts in August, consequences have included reducing staff, suspending admissions to 20 Arts programs, scaling back course options for science students and reducing enrollment numbers.
“It should be known this is the first cut after… ten years of continuous budgetary increases to the tune of 47 per cent,” explained Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk. “So was this difficult? The answer is definitely yes. Are we doing well overall relevant to other institutions in Canada? We are. We have strong institutions and we’ll simply have to get through this.”
“This – from a post-secondary institution perspective – was a very difficult budget,” said Lukaszuk. “It wasn’t a budget of choice; it was a budget of necessity – where all schools across the board have taken a seven per cent decrease.”
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