uManitoba warns faculties and non-academic units to prepare for 4% budget cuts

David Barnard, President of the University of Manitoba, has warned the institution’s faculties and non-academic units to prepare for budget cuts of 3-4% for the 2015–16 academic year. After years of low provincial grants and frozen or controlled tuition rates, inflation is outpacing uManitoba’s resources. Barnard said in a media release last week, “Put bluntly, the funding model in place does not enable the university to fully support the outcomes our students, staff, and faculty are capable of achieving for themselves and, ultimately, for the betterment of Manitoba.” uManitoba is drafting its 2015-16 budget assuming either a 2.5% increase, or no increase at all, in government funding. The CBC quotes several students and faculty members who question the transparency of the budget process, and have organized a public assembly for November 26th “as a means of organizing resistance to the impending cuts.”  CFS-Manitoba has passed a motion to “resist austerity.” The president of the uManitoba Students Union, Al Turnbull, also sits on the university board and Senate’s strategic planning committee, and observes, “When there’s no money, you can’t make any perfect decisions … This is in many ways a dark time for the university." CBC