U of W makes $3.7 million in cuts to balance budget

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This article was published 02/05/2017 (3049 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The University of Winnipeg has frozen salaries, cut senior management jobs and axed sports teams in order to shave millions off its 2017-18 budget.

The $122.5-million operating budget, approved by the university Monday night, contains $3.7 million in cuts to make up for a provincial funding shortfall while still balancing the budget as required by law.

“It was a really hard decision,” Chris Minaker, senior executive officer and adviser to U of W’s president, said Tuesday. “We really did our absolute best to preserve academic excellence and support to students.”

A number of empty jobs — dean of science, dean of kinesiology and director of Global College — will be filled internally, while the university said in a release new tenure-track faculty hires will be “extremely limited.” The salaries of about 100 non-unionized staff have been frozen for 2017 and 2018.

Sports teams introduced less than a decade ago are also being cut. The men and women’s wrestling teams, as well as the men’s baseball team, are done after this season. The men’s soccer team will be “on pause” for the upcoming season but may be reintroduced if funding is found for a new coach.

The university says the cuts are necessary because of the provincial freeze on post-secondary operating grants and limits to tuition increases, as well as the lack of “catch-up” funds.

For decades, the university has lagged behind the University of Manitoba and Brandon University in terms of funding, Minaker said, receiving little more than half of the operating grants those two universities get. Last year, the Manitoba government gave the U of W a “catch-up” grant of $1.5 million, but a similar grant wasn’t offered this year.

“We need to take steps to close that gap,” he said.

Since July, the university has cut 4.5 jobs from its senior management team, amounting to 15 per cent. The university has also budgeted for $120,000 in savings based on its voluntary Days Without Pay program.

Minaker estimates that over the last few years, the university has left between eight and 10 per cent of its vacant jobs empty as a way to balance the budget. Although he said decisions have not yet been made, the university will consider permanently removing some of those consistently vacant positions from the books this year.

“Our intent is at some point to hopefully fill some of those positions because they’re providing really important services,” he said, “but in reality, I think we need to look at what are the positions that we will not be able to fill going forward.”

Despite the belt-tightening measures, the university remains hopeful the government is open to considering another “catch-up” grant, Minaker said.

“We feel as though the door is open,” he said, despite the fact there was “no progress” in the recently released provincial budget. 

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca