VANCOUVER (CUP) – BC’s university and college presidents believe that service cuts will come if the provincial government cuts funding to post-secondary education.
A letter signed by presidents of the 25 publicly funded universities and colleges in BC, including Camosun College president Kathryn Laurin, argues that it’s “unrealistic to assume that the [funding] reductions contemplated by Budget 2012 can be achieved without implications for service levels.”
This contradicts the government’s claim that the $70-million funding gap can be overcome through administrative savings and that neither student services nor research will be affected.
“It is critical for government to understand that the $70-million reduction to institutional grants over the last two years of the fiscal plan, combined with five years of unfunded inflationary pressures, creates a strain on the operations of post-secondary institutions,” reads the letter addressed to advanced education minister Naomi Yamamoto.
The letter also expresses worries that post-secondary was the only sector that received an overall funding reduction.
“We are very concerned that the provincial government is not aware of the measures the post-secondary sector has undertaken in the last number of years in response to significant cost pressures and no increases in institutional operating grants,” reads the letter.
The presidents did, however, praise the government for providing more money for capital maintenance and that the overall funding would stay stable for the next year.
Michelle Mungall, the NDP’s critic for advanced education, stressed the importance of the letter.
“This is unprecedented,” says Mungall. “This has never happened before in BC’s history, where all of the presidents of public post-secondary institutions come together in a unified voice to express their dismay and what I interpret as their lack of confidence in the Liberal government and the minister.”
Mungall also argues that because the letter was sent out on February 28, seven days after the budget announcement, it indicated a lack of consolation between the ministry and the institutions.
“Shouldn’t [minister Yamamoto] have worked with the institutions on this very issue before the budget was developed rather than just telling them what’s going to happen and leaving them feeling like they’re out in the cold and not involved?” she says.
In the letter, the post-secondary presidents also state that the government’s mandates around collective bargaining are going to place further pressures on university finances.
The provincial government has instructed university and colleges that are undergoing collective bargaining with any of their employees that they can only raise wages or benefits if those increases are offset by savings found elsewhere in the institution.
Robert Clift, executive director of the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC (CUFA) says that the expectation that universities and colleges will be able to find savings for both the provincial government and for unions is going to create strife during negotiations.
“This is the flexibility you’ve given us, and then you remove all the flexibility,” says Clift of the government’s proposal. “Now I doubt we’re going to see faculty at the research university marching the picket line over this, but what happens is that thing that just keeps eating away at the desirability of BC as a place to [work].”
The collective bargaining agreements for the faculty association at the five major BC research universities, the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, the University of Northern British Columbia, and Royal Roads University, all expire this year.