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Former Kington Resident
While it is true, the start of this is the cap on funding from the province, which was instituted 4 years ago but instead of adjusting the budget appropriately and responsibly at that time, Universities, like Queen’s continued expansion and excessive spending, likely believing they could pressure the government to remove the cap in short order.
Let’s that the Universities had large financial reserves in the form, ie: years of surplus revenue that they channelled in to building those reserve funds that they have been using since the freeze, instead of trimming their spending.
This proves that they are capable of managing operating costs at a balance level, except now they can’t seem to figure it out, why? Is the current management and board that incompetent or are they doing this in an attempt to force the government to cave and bail them out?
There are places where cuts could have been made that would NOT effect the student’s experience or quality of education. Example: Queen’s Kingston, Published Budget Report 2020-2021, page 9 – over $11.3 million for Travel?! Seriously? for who? to where?
In 2022-2023 the Travel expense was trimmed to $10.2 million but is up to $10.7 million in the 2023-2024 report.
Perhaps, there should be a stated requirement, by the province, for Colleges and Universities to prove balanced and responsible fiscal planning before the province starts increasing funding again. Universities are more than able to do it, they just don’t want to.
This situation presents a level of arrogance on the part of the University to the outside observer that is interpreted as the management/board thinking that “we are to prestigious to fail” or “we don’t need to change anything, they will bail us out” that is just staggering.
Let’s realize that this is a situation that is largely of the University’s own making and they need to acknowledge their irresponsibility.
Esther B
Silence can mean a lot of things. It’s short sighted to only associate silence with a lack of transparency. Amongst many things that silence could represent, silence could also mean you don’t agree with someone’s agenda but you’re not at liberty to discuss it. I expect better reporting from Queens Journal. This article reads like a propaganda piece off the provost’s desk.