Carleton’s administration has asked faculties to cut their budgets by two per cent for the 2015-16 year, according to two deans.
Faculty budgets are due each February, according to financial documents posted on Carleton’s website.
The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) is the university’s largest faculty. FASS dean John Osborne said a two per cent cut for his faculty is substantial.
He said a two per cent reduction to the faculty’s $42.5-million yearly budget would mean slashing about $856,000.
Osborne said he is even further constrained by the lack of expenses he can legally cut.
“Ninety-seven per cent of my budget is salaries and most of those are protected by union contracts, so really there are only three things I can do to cut money,” he said. “One is not to replace people who leave and we get some people who leave every year, usually due to retirement.”
The faculty can also reduce the amount of money it spends on contract instructors, he said.
The third option for meeting budget cuts is to use Enrolment-Linked Budget Allocation (ELBA) funds, Osborne said.
Using student enrolment numbers from 2008-09 as a benchmark, ELBA financially rewards faculties that increase their enrolment.
According to Osborne, the final cut will be a combination of all three measures, but most of the money will likely come from ELBA.
Faculty of Public Affairs dean André Plourde is another Carleton administrator faced with a two per cent budget cut. He said his faculty is also allocating money from ELBA towards the proposed cutbacks.
However, Plourde said relying on ELBA means depending on sustained student enrolment growth.
“The university has to be good at getting students here and keeping them here and we’re working hard on that front,” he said.
Plourde said because operating revenues for the university are largely determined by provincial tuition and grant policies, focusing on keeping enrolment up helps the university take budget issues into its own hands.
“It’s something we can do directly,” he said.
Despite the series of budget cuts year over year, Osborne said Carleton, which has no operating deficit and no accumulated debt, is still in a much better position than most other Ontario universities.
“We have to look carefully at expenses . . . but this is a very lean, mean university,” he said.
While other universities are borrowing money, offering faculty buyouts, and issuing bonds to quell operating deficits, Osborne said these temporary measures only defer the problem.
“You don’t spend money you don’t have, and that’s left us in a very good position,” he said.
Carleton’s vice-president (finance) Duncan Watt declined to comment.
