![University of Calgary President Elizabeth Cannon answers a question from a member of the audience during the first budget town hall on March 21, 2013.](/news/sites/default/files/styles/ucws_image_desktop/public/2019-06/Budget_Town_Hall-400.jpg?itok=fLtKTzUu)
Elizabeth Cannon answers a question from a member of the audience during the first budget town hall.
Riley Brandt
March 22, 2013
Elizabeth Cannon answers a question from a member of the audience during the first budget town hall.
Riley Brandt
About 450 members of the university community packed MacEwan Hall Thursday afternoon for the first of two budget town halls, with 475 others participating remotely through a live webcast. The town halls are being held in response to the provincial budget tabled March 7, which reduced the university’s operating budget by 7.3 per cent.
“Because of the hard work done by so many in the community over the past few years, our financial house is in order as we face this budget reduction,” explained President Elizabeth Cannon. “We’ve expressed our view that we were surprised and disappointed at the depth of the cut. Now it’s time to get to work.
“During the next year, we have some time to reflect on how we do business at the University of Calgary and across the post-secondary sector,” she said. “We need to face these financial challenges head on so we come out the other side even stronger, and continue to move towards our Eyes High goals.”
Dru Marshall, provost and vice-president (academic), and Jake Gebert, vice-president (finance and services) outlined the university’s financial situation to 2017.
“It will be difficult, but we believe we can manage through the next year given our strong financial position,” said Marshall. “The worry comes in the following years. We have the next year to develop solutions, but clearly some tough decisions will need to be made. This situation is not financially sustainable and requires structural changes within the entire post-secondary sector. The current model simply does not work and doing nothing is not an option.”
Marshall shared positive news that the university is proceeding with hiring post-doctoral scholars – we are on track to hire 60 as planned, and making progress to leverage funding for an additional 25 – along with 50 assistant professors. And for the 2013- 2014 academic year, there are no planned cuts to student enrolment or programs, and no planned increase to tuition beyond the 2.15 per cent allowed by the government. She also said the executive team will be doing everything it can to protect staff and faculty positions during the next year.
“At this time, we have implemented a salary freeze for 45 members of the senior leadership team – this group includes the deans, vice-provosts and vice-presidents. We are not planning a hiring freeze for new faculty and staff positions already in progress,” she said.
“This is not the time to deviate from our very important Eyes High goals,” said Marshall. “However, given the severity of these budget cuts, our timelines may need to change. And in every decision we make, we must consider the impact on the student experience. We look forward to hearing your creative ideas on how we can move forward together.”
Watch for a future article on a recent economic impact study that determined the University of Calgary has an economic impact of $7.92 billion on the Calgary region. This means a $210-million loss to the regional economy resulting from the province’s cut of $47 million.