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University could be hit hard |
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Written by Caroline Zentner LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Tuesday, September 15 2009, 9:47 PM |
Student and faculty groups at the University of Lethbridge say the Alberta government is being short-sighted by making funding cuts to post-secondary education because the province’s future prosperity and competitiveness depends on a well-educated workforce.
Public Interest Alberta launched a province-wide campaign Tuesday called Don’t Cut Us Out and the University of Lethbridge Students’ Union, the U of L Faculty Association and the U of L Graduate Students’ Association are supporting it.
“We want Albertans to let our government know that they feel that post-secondary education is the best investment that we can make in the future of our province,” said Alex Massé, U of L SU vice-president academic.
The province has told post-secondary institutions there will be no funding increases for the next two years and it means the U of L has to trim between $5 and $6 million off its budget each year.
“The University of Lethbridge is actually a surprisingly lean institution,” said Robert Sutherland, vice-president of the faculty association. “When there are cuts here it will be into the meat and bone. From the point of view of the faculty association, this is a very serious situation.”
Mike Frank, the First Nations, Metis and Inuit and graduate student association representative said he’s worried the advancement of scholarly knowledge and research will suffer if funding is cut. Lack of funding also takes away the incentive to further one’s education, he added.
Even though the provincial government is facing a budget deficit of nearly $7 billion and post-secondary education isn’t the only department affected, Massé said a well-funded post-secondary system can help the whole Alberta economy.
“The big word the government of Alberta seems to be using these days is efficiencies. They’re trying to find efficiencies in the system and understandably so because they are facing some budget crunches,” he said. “We feel very strongly that post-secondary education is the way to find efficiencies across all sectors. By investing in post-secondary education, that will allow the government to sustainably keep itself out of similar issues in the future.”
Sutherland said higher education funding shouldn’t be cut now because the province has the lowest rate of high school graduation and cuts will affect student services and diminish future employment prospects. Given keen competition for faculty, he also predicted faculty will be lured away from the U of L.
Most of the university’s operating budget is salaries and benefits. The U of L will meet with its employee groups over the next few months to discuss the budget situation, said Nancy Walker, U of L vice-president of finance and administration, adding the reduction in funding will have a significant effect on the university but students and student services will be the top priority.
“It will mean reductions in faculty and staff because approximately 90 per cent of most department budgets are staff,” she said.
Walker said it’s too early to say how many positions could be lost since the university doesn’t yet know how many people will take advantage of an early retirement program to be announced soon. Reorganization and attrition could also affect the final number.
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