From the University Archives

Bateman Fund gave early help to students

Prof. Reginald J.G. Bateman. Archives photo A-2673

By Patrick Hayes
University Archives

With rising tuition and students accumulating increasingly heavy debt loads, it is easy to believe that the financial burdens of a post-secondary education are recent ones. There have always been those who have been worthy intellectually but unable financially to attend university or complete their education. Over the past four decades the number of student loans programs, bursaries and scholarships have multiplied, allowing more and more people to complete their university training.

Throughout its history, the University of Saskatchewan has employed several internal measures to help relieve the financial burden and smooth the path to convocation. In financial terms, the university’s darkest days were during the 1930s. The Great Depression hit Saskatchewan very hard. Drought and tumbling grain prices shrank money available to institution and individual alike. Unmarried male faculty took leaves without pay, wages were reduced from 10 to 30 per cent, and the University Farm was operated on a for-profit basis. To help students, the University took tuition payments in the form of grain and implemented student works programs such as the construction of the original Griffiths Stadium. Some advocated a smaller University. In the end no one lost their job and no colleges or departments were closed.

A form of short-term relief for students came in 1932 with the creation of the Bateman Memorial Fund. Reginald J.G. Bateman was a University professor and war hero. He enlisted as a private in the 28th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), in September 1914 and served in France. Recalled in 1916 to take command of the Saskatchewan Co. of the Western Universities Battalion and promoted to the rank of major, Bateman voluntarily reverted to the rank of lieutenant to return to France in 1917, where he was wounded. He returned to France once more, as captain of the 46th Battalion CEF. He was killed in action on Sept. 3, 1918.

The Bateman Memorial Fund combined contributions from colleagues, profits from the Bookstore and existing moneys administered by the University Women’s Club. The fund was intended to provide loans to deserving students needing assistance. It was recommended that the loans be for short periods not exceeding one year, and that the amount loaned to any one student in any one year should not exceed $150. After payment of a loan the student should be eligible for another loan.

Records show it was administered for more than a decade, allowing dozens of students to continue and complete their studies.