U of T funding woes mean that budgets will need to be trimmed for 2003-2004, even as enrollment numbers swell.
Provost Shirley Neuman unveiled the budget for the coming academic year before a meeting of the Governing Council last month. It contained measures to cut spending and raise revenues, most notably an across-the-board budget cut for all academic departments of 4.45 per cent. Just where those cuts are made, however, are up to the individual departments and faculties.
“In some instances departments postpone projects such as renovation, new equipment and furniture purchases,” said Neuman. “In others they may cut travel budgets, or charge back more research expenditures to research grants.”
Governing Council records also make reference to the discontinuation of certain programs, but no specific targets are mentioned.
Roger L. Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Business, didn’t specify any particular cuts his department will be making, but said that “like every part of the university, we are having to make sacrifices given the current economic environment and its current impact on the university and its finances.”
U of T has run budget deficits for the last six years, with last year’s the largest, at $34.1 million. 2003-2004 is the last year of the Governing Council’s six-year budget cycle, and regulations prohibit the university from running a deficit this year.
Neuman said it’s possible to go from $34 million in the red to a $19.4 million surplus in one year. “Yes, it is realistic, though difficult,” she said. “The budget is carefully modeled….We will meet the target.”
Revenue for the coming year will be higher for two reasons-an increase in provincial funding, and the double cohort’s tuition dollars.
“For the year ’03-’04, we have seen the first real increase in the amount of money per student that the government has given us in the past 10 or 12 years,” said Derek McCammond, vice-provost of planning and budget. McCammond added that despite the increase, Ontario universities still receive the lowest level of provincial support per student in Canada.
The double cohort, when it arrives in September, will bring approximately $47 million more in tuition than last year’s students, which will raise revenues.
But much still depends on the performance of the stock market and the Canadian economy. U of T’s investments, including its billion-dollar endowment and two-billion-dollar pension plan, lost $320 million last year, and until they recover, the university has no nest egg to fall back on.
Felix Chee, vice-president of business affairs and chief financial officer of the university, was unavailable for comment.
