UBC deficit will make classes bigger, electives fewer

$20-million cut puts status of small programs in question

CANDICE VALLANTIN THE UBYSSEY (UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA)

VANCOUVER (CUP) — The University of British Columbia will be putting a freeze on hiring new faculty starting in the fall, which will translate into larger class sizes and some electives being dropped entirely.

The $20-million cut announced Jan. 29 is a short-term strategy to immediately address UBC’s $36-million deficit. Long-term plans to adapt to UBC’s new spending limitations will require permanent restructuring in the university’s academic focus.

George Mackie, vice-president (academic) and acting provost, explained that the spending cuts were spread across faculties proportionately according to their size, with each facing between 4.4 and 5.2 per cent cuts to their total budgets.

“I don’t think it’s going to be painless, but it’s an opportunity to develop a more rational way of allocating scarce resources,” he said. “We have to do a better job of matching student demand with our academic priorities and goals.”

Mackie defined important academic goals as programs that benefit society, such as diabetes research, cleaner energy, and programs that foster global citizenship.

The immediate result of the spending cuts in most faculties has been a hiring freeze, delaying the filling of positions left open by retirees until a long-term plan to deal with the deficit has been developed.

The faculty of arts — the university’s largest faculty with 11,000 students — has frozen 30 positions to deal with a $3.2-million cut in its budget. Since the average faculty member teaches four courses, this hiring freeze will amount to the elimination of 120 sections next year.

Nancy Gallini, dean of the faculty of arts, said that an increase in class sizes will be inevitable, and those classes with the smallest enrolment numbers will likely be cut entirely.

The faculty of science, with 6,761 undergraduate students, has dealt with its share of the cuts, $2.7 million, in a similar fashion. Dean Simon Peacock wrote in an e-mail that the funding cuts will be met “primarily by reducing planned capital expenditures (research start-up funding for new faculty, undergraduate lab equipment upgrades, and construction expenses) and secondarily by delaying the filling of selected faculty and staff positions.”

Peacock said class sizes would not increase in the coming year, with the faculty instead choosing to offer fewer electives.

Although the larger faculties seem to be rolling with the punches, smaller faculties are having a harder time dealing with the cash crunch. “Small faculties have a smaller cash call, but they are hurting the most because they have less flexibility,” Mackie said.

The film production program, for example, with an enrolment of only 32 majors and nine graduate students, is in limbo.

Brian McIlroy, chair of the program, explained that new admittance was halted in December so that the curriculum could be reorganized. As a result of the budget cuts announced in January, the department of theatre, film, and creative writing is going through a restructuring process, leaving the fate of the production program unknown until this process is finalized.

McIlroy said that students currently in the program won’t be affected, but he doesn’t know when or if the program will be offered to more students in the future.

The university’s decision to deal with this deficit with an immediate one-time cash call was well-received overall, but the deans are worried about the long-term effects of the deficit. Peacock warned, “A recurring budget cut of this magnitude would have a much greater negative impact.”

Gallini agreed. “Next year does worry me because of this huge cut, but what really worries me is the permanent cut — are we losing these positions forever? Then we really have to re-think what we’re doing in the faculty of arts.”

The academic steering committee is evaluating the university’s academic goals to decide how to allocate the resources available over the long-term. UBC’s general purpose operating fund consists largely of provincial grant money plus tuition fees, and varies from year to year. Last year this fund reached $591 million and Mackie predicts it will total over $600 million next year.

Despite the tough decisions ahead, Mackie is up for the challenge. “We’re going to prune our garden, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re proud of our garden, but even the best of gardens can use some pruning and weeding,” he said.