U of O seeks budget cutbacks
illustration by Alex Martin
Report proposes $31.1 million in cuts to combat expected 2010-11 shortfall
THE UNIVERSITY OF Ottawa’s steering committee on resource optimization has completed a report outlining recommendations to make up to $31.1 million in cuts in the 2010–11 budget.
The “Resource Optimization Report” includes over 180 suggestions to scale back expenditures or increase revenue in an effort to balance the 2010–11 budget, which the administration has predicted will include a $25 million deficit.
“I don’t think any of the cuts or the changes in the document are inevitable,” said U of O President Allan Rock. “I think the fact is that it’s inevitable we’re going to have to balance the budget.”
The steering committee—composed of several local business leaders, one current and one former faculty member, and a former Board of Governors member, all chosen by the U of O’s president and vice-presidents—has been working since April 2009 to compile the report after approaching faculties, services, and working groups specially formed the consultations.
“We sought the input of all of the faculties and all the services at the university ... [and] asked each one of these groups to come up with savings or some ways to reduce their expenditures,” explained David Zussman, chair of the steering committee and Jarislowsky Chair in Public Sector Management at the U of O’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. “Each group was given a target number, which was effectively five per cent of their expenditures.”
While the committee was tasked with finding $25 million in savings, the report offers $31.1 million in “budget options,” some of which the committee recommends should be adopted, others of which the committee advises should be reviewed further.
Some of the committee-supported proposals include increasing studio fees in visual arts; increasing class sizes in the faculties of education, engineering, and civil law; imposing incidental fees for lab courses in the faculty of science; reducing budgets for teaching assistants in several faculties; adding a $100 incidental fee for students in engineering; and reducing amounts of several graduate scholarships.
Other proposals include launching large-scale renovation projects that would seek to reduce energy costs and return savings to the university over five years; establishing initiatives to reduce the amount of furniture, paper, and bottled water purchased at the university; discontinuing the printing of the U of O’s Gazette; and reducing some travel and training expenses across several offices and services.
“No one likes cutting expenditures, but given that, I feel comfortable that we’ve done the best that we possibly could do with the charge that we had,” said Zussman.
While both Rock and Zussman mentioned that students were approached and consulted while the report was being compiled, Student Federation of the University of Ottawa President Seamus Wolfe indicated that students were not invited to take on a more prominent role.
“No representative of any of the professors, staff, or students’ unions were asked to sit on the committee which put this report together,” Wolfe wrote in an email to the Fulcrum.
“This entire project is terribly disquieting and could have a extremely detrimental impact on the quality of our education,” he continued. “We are currently working with all the campus community, including professors, staff, [teaching assistants], and grad students to come up with a common response to the report.”
Sean Kelly, president of CUPE 2626—the union representing teaching assistants and other groups of students employed at the U of O—added that they were also declined any chance to consult with the committee.
“When we asked for information, when we asked for a consultation period, it was refused. ... We’re very disappointed with the lack of consultation and the lack of collegiality and the lack of transparency,” he said.
“There is going to be some serious impact on the quality of education,” Kelly continued, referring to the proposed cuts to TA budgets and increased enrolment
“Very likely, the consequences [will be] fewer TAs with larger class sizes.”
Rock emphasized that the recommendations in the report are not finalized.
“It’s early yet to be making a judgment about which ones will be approved and which ones won’t; that’s what the consultation’s all about. And we won’t know everything we need to know about the possible changes until we’ve finished that consultation and heard from everybody,” he said.
Rock indicated that a link to the report will soon be posted on his blog (www.president.uottawa.ca/blog) and that feedback should be sent to the “Let’s Talk” suggestion box on the U of O website (www.president.uottawa.ca/box.html). Suggestions must be sent in by Feb. 15 to allow for a proposed 2010–11 budget to be drafted and tabled by the Board of Governors at their May meeting.
