U of T President Robert Birgeneau stated on Monday that the provincial Liberals’ promise to freeze tuition fees was made without a full understanding of its implications for the University’s finances.
Speaking at a meeting of the Business Board of the Governing Council, Birgeneau said that at a meeting earlier this year with Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty, it was apparent to him that the Liberals had not understood that the proposed freeze would cost the university $160 million a year. “The numbers were surprising to them,” said Birgeneau.
Birgeneau’s comments followed a presentation by Vice President for Government and Institutional Relations Sheldon Levy, in which he stated that Ontario is tenth among Canadian provinces in university operating grants per capita, per student enrolled, and per $1,000 of personal provincial income. Board members agreed that this was an unsustainable situation.
While no member of the board explicitly opposed the tuition freeze, Levy said that unless it were accompanied by new money from another source, it would make the situation even worse. He noted that inflation at the university level is about four per cent. He said that he had met with the presumed new Liberal chief of staff, whom he did not identify, and characterized his/her reaction to the university administration’s reaction to the proposed freeze as “interesting ideas, no commitment, ears open”.
A tuition freeze is an important component of the post-secondary education platform of the Liberals, who are currently leading in the polls for the election today.
Birgeneau said that without new money, the student/faculty ratio will continue to increase. “We just can’t let this continue,” he said.
Levy also argued that U of T’s graduate schools are facing major funding difficulties in the near future as graduate enrolment increases as a result of the federal government’s innovation agenda and the double cohort students going to grad school. Because “we aren’t funded for increased graduate students,” Levy called for financial planning for the increased enrolment to start as soon as possible. “This issue cannot be solved as a one-size-fits-all,” he said.
Board member Timothy Reid also expressed concerned over the physical condition of many U of T buildings, another financial concern for the near future.
The other major event at Monday’s meeting was the approval by the board of the spending of $54.4 million for the construction of a major new academic building at each of U of T’s two suburban campuses.
The Academic Learning Centre at UTM and the Arts/Classroom Building at U of T at Scarborough (UTSC) now only need the final green light from the Governing Council as a whole before construction will begin; an architectural team has already been selected for both projects.
Mississauga’s Academic Learning Centre (ALC) is intended to remedy what John Bisanti, the university’s Chief Capital Projects Officer, called “the tremendous shortage of study space at UTM.” The 96,800 square-foot building will contain a variety of new classrooms, as well as being the new home for an expanded UTM library. It is planned to be completed by September 2006, and is projected to cost $34 million.
The Arts/Classroom Building at Scarborough will fulfill a similar purpose, containing general and specialized classrooms and academic and administrative offices. It is will also serve as what Bisanti called a “welcome hall”, a focal point for the campus. The building is scheduled for completion by September 2005 and will cost $20.4 million.
Both projects are mostly being financed by money from the province’s SuperBuild fund, but approximately 28 per cent of the funds will come from two mortgages serviced by the Enrolment Growth Fund.
