{"id":3099,"date":"2012-04-11T09:04:03","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T16:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=3099"},"modified":"2012-05-23T13:05:18","modified_gmt":"2012-05-23T20:05:18","slug":"camosuns-budget-increases-tuition-axes-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/04\/11\/camosuns-budget-increases-tuition-axes-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun’s budget increases tuition, axes programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camosun’s new budget:
\n\u2022 2% increase in tuition
\n\u2022 46 jobs potentially cut
\n\u2022 1 radio station shut down
\n\u2022 3 programs cut or suspended<\/p>\n

Between the two percent increase in tuition, cutting as many as 46 staff and faculty, the shutting down of the college\u2019s radio station and the cuts or suspensions of three programs, Camosun\u2019s recently announced budget will have long- lasting effects on students and staff at the college.<\/p>\n

Madeline Keller-MacLeod, Camosun College Student Society\u2019s (CCSS) Lansdowne<\/del>\u00a0external affairs executive, says the increase in tuition costs could result in students unable to afford education.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re committed to making education a right,\u201d says Keller-MacLeod, \u201cand with every tuition fee increase, education is becoming more of a privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camosun College faces an initial deficit of $2.5 million, due both to\u00a0the lack of an increase in provincial funding (which has been flat since 2010 when it was cut by 75 percent) and lower-than-anticipated non-governmental revenue generation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
CKMO station manager Brad Edwards will soon see the station shut down due to Camosun's new budget (file photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Keller-MacLeod believes that the college is doing what it can to make sure students are impacted as little as possible, and the problem lies with the provincial government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government has given postsecondary institutions a mandate to have a balanced budget every year and they have to try to make it not affect students,\u201d she says, \u201cand that\u2019s impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joan Yates, executive director, communications and advancement at Camosun, emphasizes how hard the college is trying to avoid having students impacted by the cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be great if we didn\u2019t have to increase tuition,\u201d says Yates, \u201cbut the reality is that our costs have gone up proportionately more than two percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The budget calls for the cuts of 6.6 administration positions, 22.5 support staff positions, and 17 Camosun College Faculty Association positions, which is 46 people on paper, but Yates believes the actual number will be lower.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on what has happened in the past in this organization\u2014while that\u2019s a huge number, no question\u2014with actual people, it comes way down,\u201d says Yates. \u201cWe will have people absolutely who are impacted,\u00a0but the [actual] number is less than half of that overall position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students interested in media have been hit particularly hard by the cuts. CKMO, Camosun\u2019s radio station, is being shut down and the Applied Communication Program (ACP) is being suspended, despite high graduate employment rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we\u2019re not integrated with any other programs, they can cut us and no other programs are affected directly,\u201d says ACP instructor Kim O\u2019Hare. \u201cIf you cut a biology teacher you affect the nursing program and the environmental program and so on. We\u2019re a stand-alone program. It\u2019s less complicated;\u00a0the effects of suspending ACP are contained.\u201d<\/p>\n

ACP being suspended will leave a void in communications education on Vancouver Island.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you can walk into a media outlet on the island without running into an ACP person,\u201d says O\u2019Hare. \u201cAnd that\u2019s done. It\u2019s over now. Like everything else, we\u2019ll be relying on the mainland to provide our communications now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from CKMO being shut down and the Applied Communication Program being suspended, the 2012\u201313 Camosun College budget is hitting the college hard.<\/p>\n

Here are some other affected programs and services:
\n\u2022 In Student Services, the Learning Skills program will be cut. Other options for delivering some elements of this service are being considered. In addition, a re-organization of Student Services will result in reductions.
\n\u2022 Computing Science as a stand-alone program will be cut. Computing classes offered to other programs will continue.
\n\u2022 The English Language Development program will be reduced.
\n\u2022 The Network Electronics program will be suspended.
\n\u2022 6.6 management positions will be cut, including associate deans.
\n\u2022 Information Technology will have positions removed in both management and support staff.
\n\u2022 Continuing Education\/Contract Training areas that operate below cost recovery will be suspended.
\n\u2022 Camosun International will lose positions due to changes in its business model.
\n\u2022 Non-government funded areas, such as co-op and ancillary services, will also lose positions.
\n\u2022 Reductions will also be made in other departments of the college.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camosun’s new budget: \u2022 2% increase in tuition \u2022 46 jobs potentially cut \u2022 1 radio station shut down \u2022 3 programs cut or suspended Between the two percent increase in tuition, cutting as many as 46 staff and faculty, the shutting down of the college\u2019s radio station and the cuts or suspensions of three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,74,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-may-9-2012","category-april-11-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3099"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3431,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3099\/revisions\/3431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}