May 18, 2007
By Colleen MacPherson
With Board of Governor approval May 8 of the University’s 2007-08 operating budget came a collective sigh of relief, and a feeling of cautious optimism, from senior administrators glad to have eliminated the institution’s structural deficit.
“This is a good budget, a balanced budget,” said President Peter MacKinnon. “I don’t know if we’ve turned a corner because the issues (that affect budgets) tend to recur … but I’m feeling more optimistic because we’ve addressed the structural deficit.”
Over the past several years, the University has taken strategic measures to make up an annual structural deficit of about $6 million that was identified in 2003. Those measures have been included in each of the budgets that made up the multi-year framework accompanying the first Integrated Planning cycle, which began in 2003-04.
MacKinnon commented on a number of highlights in the new budget, including some stability in salary and benefit costs. Settling a number of collective agreements “allows us to ensure that we are competitive with respect to salary scales at a time of intense recruiting,” he said.
This budget also includes a injection of funds into Huskie Athletics, a response, said MacKinnon, to criticism of the University’s apparent lack of commitment to the program voiced in an external review done about a year ago. Included in the budget is a permanent allocation of $542,000 to the Huskies – $165,000 to the Championship Fund to cover post-season costs and $377,000 to general operations.
“We know Huskie Athletics programs are important to the University community and to the entire Saskatoon and Saskatchewan community. We know there is a certain amount of identification with our teams, and we wanted to put Huskie Athletics on sounder footing.”
Balancing these positive features is what MacKinnon termed “a series of unanswered questions” about the future that will need to be addressed as the University moves into its second four-year planning cycle. For the president, the most pressing question is how the University will maintain its enrolment base in the face of demographic changes in the province and a projected decline in the number of high school graduates choosing to enrol in post-secondary programs.
Along with enrolment is the need “to ensure our retention (of students) is better than it currently is.”
Of similar import to the University’s future will be the provincial government’s policy relative to tuition, he said. For the third straight year, the government increased the University’s annual operating grant enough to allow tuition rates to be held at 2004-05 levels. The University needs to consider its position should that policy change.
Both Michael Atkinson, provost and vice-president academic, and Richard Florizone, vice-president of finance and resources, concur with the President that this is a good news budget, and that the next four-year budget framework needs to be developed carefully.
“We have cost pressures,” said Atkinson, “but we’ve got things pretty much in balance. We’ve been able to restrain demand but still be quite competitive. We’re definitely in the game, and we haven’t broken the bank to do it.”
Atkinson said the 2007-08 budget positions the University well going into the next planning cycle. From an academic perspective, being able to provide $2.5 million in ongoing support for the Academic Priorities Fund (APF) bodes well for the University’s ability to fund academic priorities identified in the planning process, as does “knowing going in what salary costs will be for faculty.”
Tuition revenue and enrolment levels are the unknowns, he said, “and over a four-year period, that’s where we start to feel the bite,” but the planning process forces the University to think long term.
Florizone described the 2007-08 budget as “a nice tidy end” to the first planning cycle. Some additional revenue, including an increase in the province’s annual capital allowance, mean the University can address some ongoing issues like roof repairs, start-up capital requirements for new faculty, and efforts to relieve space deficiencies on campus.
Campus core revitalization will get $1 million in the coming year to upgrade facilities like Kirk Hall and provide short-term space relief. Florizone said a number of options are being considered, including moving some administrative units to Innovation Place and using the vacated space for academic purposes.
“We haven’t made any decisions yet. The good thing is that we’ve identified the money but haven’t identified the solution. Usually we identify the solution, then look for the money.”
Preparing the next four-year budget framework will require modelling factors like tuition, salaries and enrolment, he said. “Once we’ve done that, then we’ll know financially the extent of any budget pressures going forward. It will be easier this time because we know the pitfalls and some of the strengths of the process.”
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