President's Column

How Bizarre

By Bonnie Patterson

A '90s pop chart song carried the line, "how bizarre, how bizarre." And so life is in the university sector these days!

Over the last few months, universities have been working with government officials through a Joint Working Group on University Capacity, quantifying the level of investment needed to meet the anticipated surge in demand for access to post secondary education in the province. Recall from earlier communications the result of a PriceWaterhouseCoopers study, commissioned by cou, that projected enrolments could increase by up to 90,000 (40%) over the next decade with as many as 33,000 students seeking university spaces in just a little over three years as a result of secondary school reforms.

At a recent Senate meeting, growth targets were confirmed for the purposes of planning at Trent that would see our intake of students increase over 1998/99 levels by 1,162 at the peak of enrolment growth in 2003/4 and at a steady state in 2011/12, by an increase of approximately 323 students.

These figures were used in our recent application to the SuperBuild Growth Fund for new capital spending on our university. If successful, this will help address physical space needs associated with growing enrolments but there is also an urgent need for increased operating funds. We need assurances of additional operating funding to put excellent faculty in our classrooms and laboratories, purchase equipment and books, provide services for students, hire necessary staff, compete for our share of federal granting council research funds-the list goes on.

We have called for a multi-year financial commitment in December transfer announcements in order to adequately plan for next year's admission intake, offers for which will begin in March of 2000. Thereafter, the next opportunity for the provincial government to indicate a strategic investment would be in the Spring 2000 budget.

We were all encouraged by the recent Throne Speech in which the Harris government reiterated a commitment made by successive Ontario governments that "Every willing and qualified Ontario student will continue to be able to attend college or university."

On another important front, a joint Working Group on University Research made up of senior representatives from government and universities has been formed with a mandate to provide advice to the government on ways to support basic and applied research in all disciplines of Ontario universities to further our economic, educational, social and cultural missions. The group, co-chaired by the deputy minister of the Ministry of Energy, Science and Technology and president of cou, will begin its task by reviewing the findings of a study by Prof. Munroe-Blum on the role of post secondary research in the broader innovation strategy of the province.

All that said, this past week sang quite a different tune to university operating budgets with the announcement by Management Board Chair, Chris Hodgson, that more cuts are on the way in order to move the province towards a balanced budget in the next fiscal year. In the words of our Ministry, "the government is asking universities and colleges to continue their efforts to find administrative and operational savings through further initiatives in developing consortia, common service providers and cooperative delivery of services" amounting to a cut of $3.9 million in 2000/2001. Some institution-specific and special purpose grants have been cut including the funding for the Ontario Four Motors international program. As well, they announced "further steps to tighten osap requirements in order to reduce defaults and fraud."

What does this mean for Trent? There were several messages sent to institutions in the announcement including one related to managing "program and salary budgets effectively." Specifically in direct grant cuts, while not every detail has been confirmed, I estimate the impact to be a reduction of nearly $45,000 in 2000/2001 operating funds. Having reviewed the three changes to osap announced, it is more difficult to assess the particular impact on Trent students. Tighter credit screening criteria will be applied to new loan applicants where a history of credit abuse exists; an income verification system will be introduced related to "under-reporting" of income on student loan applications; and default rate thresholds will be lowered, the point at which institutions must pick up the costs of student loan defaults. After reviewing our student default rates from 1998, the latter would appear not to have an impact on Trent.

A leaked cabinet document reportedly speaks of the introduction of private universities in the province and amalgamations of several colleges and universities among its recommendations. We have formally requested a copy from our Ministry who have characterized the document as part of officials regular and ongoing process of developing "options" for strengthening the system by seeking greater efficiencies, reducing costs, and looking at new ways of delivering programs.

As we begin the budgetary process for 2000/2001 later this month, in addition to implementing year 2 of our Plan for Recovery, we will need to find solutions to deal with this latest demand. Any reduction is difficult to deal with given the last few years of cutbacks particularly in the face of our particular financial situation. Positive transfer announcements related to future growth will be critical to us as will our continued focus on recruitment initiatives that restore our enrolment levels. Each and every one of us plays an important role in attracting and retaining our students through these challenging times. Thank you for your continued efforts in helping Trent move positively forward.