The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) approved budgetary measures on July 3, to cut $1.2 million from the university’s deficit by introducing student fees, under-enrolled classes, and decreasing labour costs.
These spending reductions are part of a plan submitted by the troubled fine arts school on Mar. 29 to get NSCAD on the path towards financial stability, the school’s president David B. Smith said in a letter to the campus community.
According to NSCAD’s “Framework for Sustainability,” the school intends on balancing the budget by cutting jobs, mostly part-time positions, through attrition, which is the gradual reduction of employees through retirement.
As for new student fees, NSCAD plans to increase tuition by 3 per cent as well as add an adjustment fee of $82.50 a term for students taking five courses in the school year. Students who wish to take six courses will soon have to pay an Override Fee of $600 per term. The framework stated that a $45 facility fee and a $50 technology renewal fee will also be added to tuition for the upcoming school year.
Currently, NSCAD does not charge students for graduating. However, in order to generate revenue of approximately $11,600, students graduating from the 2012-2013 class and onwards will have to pay a $50 fee.
Despite the new fees, NSCAD’s tuition for the 2012-2013 school year is below the provincial average, resting at $6,000 per year.
Kevin Finch, a communications advisor for the province’s department of education, said NSCAD’s financial troubles started five years ago, “after the province agreed to invest $4.7 million to move the university from leased premises to a new port campuses” in order to handle enrollment growth.
One of these campuses is the Waterfront Campus which required $8.9 million from the government to house NSCAD’s sculpture, design, ceramics, and foundation programs, said a report issued by the Nova Scotia government in December 2011.
However, enrollment did not increase as expected and “anticipated federal funding did not arrive, leaving NSCAD in a financial crunch from which it has not recovered,” Finch said.
According to the 2011 report, NSCAD’s current debt is projected to be $19 million.
The 2011 report also stated that NSCAD relies on funding provided by the Nova Scotia government more than any other school in the province. “The total operating and facilities grants from the province were approximately $11 million or 60 per cent of NSCAD’s total revenue,” the report said. The average for universities in Nova Scotia is around 30 per cent.
Without the cost-saving measures introduced in NSCAD’s Framework for Sustainability, NSCAD’s deficit, which currently sits at $2.4 million, could balloon to $4 million by 2013.
Sarah Trower and Kelly Zwicker, president and vice-president internal for the student union at NSCAD, said that the budget cuts are the result of a “serious lack of transparency in regards to the distribution of money.”
According to Trower and Zwicker, the Student Union of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (SUNSCAD), recently sent letters to the NSCAD Board of Governance and the Minister of Labour and Advanced Education as a response to the new fees.
Trower and Zwicker said the budget goes against a Memorandum of Understanding which states that students must be informed of proposed ancillary fees 4 weeks in advance.
Both said they were consulted only a week and a half before the fees were passed.
NSCAD’s financial woes cast a dark shroud on its 125th anniversary. Nonetheless, the Nova Scotia government remains optimistic in securing NSCAD’s future.
“Nova Scotia has a rich cultural heritage and NSCAD’s roots go back 125 years,” Finch said. “We are committed to having a fine arts education in this province.”
