September 26, 1997

 

Post-cuts budget still contains challenges
LEE ELLIOTT
Folio Staff

The cuts are over, but the budget headaches aren't.

Vice President (Academic) Doug Owram told General Faculties Council (GFC) Monday that preliminary budget projections look challenging. "The cuts are over, but we still face the effects of those cuts.I'll be frank, we're not going to be doing much adding." The University absorbed a $53 million cut over three years, "then the government began to trickle money back into the system," he says.

Part of the budget challenge lies in the fact that the $53 million was taken from the operating fund where the University determined priorities, and it's coming back in designated funding envelopes where the government determines priorities. Funding envelopes often require matching dollars as well. There could come a time, says Owram, when we'd have to turn down a grant because matching funds were needed for other projects.

The budget process is further complicated by the shift from tax-based funding to tuition-based funding and stretched by inflation. "The government does not recognize inflation as a thing to be funded," says Owram. The base grant is increasing 1.9 per cent compared to an inflation rate of roughly three per cent. Inflation along with salary increases, at approximately the rate of inflation, is the biggest addition to expenses.

Savings from the faculty renewal program won't start to be realized for another couple of years because of equipment costs associated with new faculty. Similarly, while the fund-raising campaign is at 60 per cent of its goal, much of that money is pledged over a period of time, so the University won't fully feel the benefits for another three years. Again, donated funds are often designated.

The primary goal of this year's budget is to maintain the core functions of teaching and research, says Owram. "Overall, the teaching and research units should have the same capacity as last year."

That doesn't mean there will be no changes in funding to faculties. Informed choices will have to be made.

Factors to be considered in deciding which faculties get what include:

"It's not a science, I'm not pretending it is," says Owram. "It's a judgment."

The budget process has been moved forward from its traditional start in October and began in August, says Owram. The numbers presented to GFC, then, are very rough as students may still drop out. It will be nearer December before we really know enrolment, he says.

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