The university is looking for faculty, staff, students, alumni, and governors who have expertise in generating funding as provincial public funding declines on an annual basis. U of T Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr sent a memo calling for nominations for an advisory group to find alternative sources of funding.
“Ontario universities, as we said in the memo, are facing increased financial pressure,” said Regehr. The provincial grant, which comprises 27 per cent of U of T’s current operating budget, decreases by about 1.5 per cent per year. “On top of that, we have among the lowest student funding in the country and our tuitions are regulated, so in order to continue the great world-class research and teaching that we do, we need to think of new ways to support it,” said Regehr.
The initiative raises questions about how the university will go about finding alternative sources of funding, and what moral and legal obligations they will abide by. There is precedence for Canadian universities being swayed to make decisions based on third-party interest from donors. In 2010, Carleton University accepted a $15 million donation from Calgary businessman Clayton Riddell, which allowed the Riddell Foundation to appoint three of five people on a steering committee, ultimately influencing the curriculum in their school of political management. In 2012, an agreement between York University and the Centre for International Governance and Innovation, which would have funded study in international law, fell through due to faculty opposition.
The university is still looking for nominations for positions on the advisory board. They will be bringing in experts from different fields to discuss and analyze different types of feasible sources of funding. The assessors are looking for nominees with expertise on how funds are generated in a wide variety of sectors.
The advisory group supposedly has one year to fulfil its mandate, which includes coming up with a set of principles aligned with the university’s values, examining a wide set of options for alternative funding, and recommending a set of options for diversifying funding sources.
The advisory group will be discussed by Regehr, Senior Strategist Sally Garner, and U of T President Meric Gertler. They will form a representative group to decide which of the nominees will be on the advisory group.
“The committee hasn’t been struck yet, so I can’t say what they’re going to look at,” continued Regehr. “My colleague Sally [Garner] will be sitting on the committee as a senior assessor assisting the committee, and they’ll look at a broad range, but I wouldn’t want to say what it’s going to be. That’s why we’re bringing in experts so they can think outside the box, in ways that we haven’t yet.”
Nominations can be submitted by email to [email protected] before Friday, December 8.
