University of Guelph plans to gather $32.4 million in the next three years due to increasing expenses, with 75 per cent of revenues to be gathered by its seven colleges, according to an official presentation made to the school’s senate on Oct. 9.
Guelph’s vice-president (communications and public affairs), Chuck Cunningham, said the university has decided to take steps after determining there is a budget shortfall.
“Essentially our expenses continued to rise and they’ll be exceeding our revenues by two to three per cent each year,” Cunningham said. “With provincial revenue continuing to decline, we’ll continue to have this deficit.”
The school’s Update on Integrated Planning and the Program Prioritization Process (PPP) outlines where specific budget cuts are to be made.
According to the plan, the PPP is an external structure adapted for Guelph. Its purpose is to identify, document, and rank activities by programs and services, not units.
The plan calls for all seven colleges and various non-academic areas to come up with the needed $32.4 million over the span of three years. In 2014, they expect to make $7.8 million, followed by $10 million and $14.8 million in the last year.
While some universities undergoing budget cut exercises often assign three to four per cent of cuts straight across the board, Guelph has chosen to be more specific, according to Cunningham.
Out of the seven colleges, the College of Arts must make $5.6 million in costs, the highest reduction for all seven colleges. It is followed closely by the Ontario Veterinary College with $4.9 million, despite its programs and services scoring fairly well in the PPP.
In terms of the five categories of non-academic budget cuts, academic services will be drawn back by $8.6 million, followed by physical resources at $1.7 million, with student services taking the smallest hit at $950,000.
“We’re also going to be reinvesting money in programs that could be better if they had more investment in them,” Cunningham said.
All colleges and non-academic areas will be affected in some way by the plan. Many factors went into determining how big of a budget cut any particular college must make including the PPP, the number of students and faculty, and the cost associated with delivering the program, according to Cunningham.
This is not the first time the university has gone through budget reduction exercises. Several years ago, the school had to cut its budget by $45 million, which made many programs come out stronger, Cunningham said.
The plan calls for sustainable growth and revenue opportunities for all areas to meet their budget requirements.
“It’s going to be up to each college and non-academic area to find ways to either cut budgets or increase revenue,” Cunningham said, suggesting strategies and creative methods like offering non-degree or interest courses handled individually by colleges.
“It’s clear we have to make some tough choices,” Cunningham said.
“We know what the problem is in respect to our budget, we know what we have to do to fix it, but we haven’t determined how we’re going to do it.”
