The Athabasca University Students’ Union (AUSU) is worried about university finances even after board chair Barry Walker said AU was in a “very sound financial situation” in a CBC article.
“A recent CBC report notes that in recent years the university has made a series of reserve draws to cover budget shortfalls, draining the once $30-million reserve fund,” an AUSU press release reads.
Bethany Tynes is the current president of the AUSU and said the union is concerned about more than depleting reserves.
“We were very concerned when we read his comments to the CBC that AU is on firm financial footing. When the reserves are being drained at the rate they have been recently, which is fairly alarming, that indicates a problem to me,” she said.
She said Walker’s comments came “when there is a hiring freeze on, when they are asking the faculty association to take massive cuts in current negotiations, (and) when they have already denied sabbaticals to many faculty members even though we’ve been told by AUFA they have been granted in our contracts.”
Walker explained that the reserves were set aside for specific purposes.
“We can’t use that money for other purposes,” he said. “None of those reserves were used to pay salaries or other operating costs of the university.”
In regards to wasting money, Walker said that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
“We didn’t waste any money,” he said. “I think we will have some dialogue with the students’ union.”
Tynes also said that student fees are on the rise.
“All those things are really concerning to us,” she said. “They don’t radiate insurance in the financial situation of the university.”
Walker said that post-secondary institutions are under-funded.
“But increases are tied to inflation, and the inflation amount that we can add to tuition on an annual basis is controlled by (the Ministry of) Advanced Education and Technology. We don’t establish what those increases can be,” he said. “I believe the authorized increase for this past year was 1.4 per cent. We didn’t increase our tuition by that much.”
Tynes said there were a few reports from the university published in the Athabasca Advocate that troubled the union.
“When those reports came out, we were waiting for the budget to come out, and were hoping it would show more foresight for the future and how we were going to climb out of the hole,” she said. “We were waiting at that point to see how it would play out, and just recently CBC came out with their report about “pork-barrel politics” and PC party donations at AU, and the conflict of interest of at least one member of the university staff.”
Tynes said that even after the first financial reports came out, the union was hoping the university would deal with the issues in a timely manner.
“With the release of the second report, we decided we couldn’t put off acting on behalf of our students any longer,” she said.
In regards to the Progressive Conservative Party, Tynes said the real issue is the financial situation that drives universities like AU, Portage College and Grand Prairie Regional College to make donations.
“AU wasn’t the only school caught with this type of donation,” she said. “That doesn’t make it right, but it also points out that there is a problem with the system and universities aren’t being funded sufficiently when they need to go to measures like this.”
Tynes said she wants to see post-secondary institutions funded properly.
“They need reliable based and predictable funding,” she said.
Walker said, “I recognize that times are tight, and there are some pressures in the post-secondary sector, but we are not alone in that.”
