Board approves deficit management plan

At its June 24 meeting, UVic’s board of governors approved a strategy to deal with the provincial government’s $4.2-million reduction in the university’s operating grant that was announced in March.

UVic’s board of governors has approved the following recommendations of the 2008/09 deficit management plan. The university will utilize projected additional overhead revenue from research contracts ($0.12 million); use tuition contingency funding that was set aside in the 2008/09 budget ($1.5 million); spend central one-time sources of funding ($2.3 million); and reduce the funding provided to ancillary operations such as the bookstore ($0.2 million).

UVic Vice-President Academic Jamie Cassels says that while these sources of funding are sufficient to cover the shortfall for 2008/09, the 2009/10 base reduction plan will be more challenging, as it will require permanent base budget cuts.

Also at its June meeting, the board received for information the current projection for how the cuts would be handled in 2009/10. The plan calls for a permanent reduction of $4.2 million through a combination of increased revenues, decreased central expenditures and reductions in faculty and departmental budgets. These changes will be part of the 2009/10 budget plan and will take effect in April 2009.

Given that close to 80 per cent of the university’s operating budget supports salary and benefits costs, the bulk of the reductions in faculties and departments will come by eliminating positions. The plan anticipates the reduction of approximately 22 to 30 faculty positions and 13 to 20 staff positions. The rest will come from operating or equipment replacement accounts. To minimize the impact on current faculty and staff, the reduction in positions will be accomplished mostly through attrition rather than layoffs.

The amount of funding available for teaching assistants and sessionally taught course sections will also be affected.

“Since UVic is already the most efficient of BC’s research-intensive universities, there’s really no way that a cut of this magnitude could be painless,” says Cassels. “There will likely be fewer course sections and larger class sizes. The reduction in faculty will also reduce research activity, and fewer staff will affect services.”

SFU is dealing with a $6.3-million cut, while UBC received a combined $15.8-million reduction and UNBC $1 million less than promised.