February 18, 1997

The Panther Prints

Just theBasics vs. a Quality Education?

UPEI! struggles with proposed cuts by Provincial Government

By TOM BEVERIDGE rently, but that all areas of its

operations must be reviewed. Intheupcoming provin- He pointed out, “students cial budget, the University of should expecta change to serv- Prince Edward Island expects ice delivery”, stressing the to join the list of post-second- same quality will still exist. ary institutions across Canada Shared faculty positions, affected by a cascade of gov- cross-listed courses, larger ernment cutbacks. classes, higher tuition and cuts Attempting todealwith to some services are a number the projected cuts, the univer- of ideas considered by the sity’s Senior Management SMGatthis time. “The use of Group (SMG) has attempted user fees or differential fees to take a pro-active role in will be put to the students be- planningtodeal with predicted fore they would be imple- cuts of up to 10% or $1.8 mented”, Dr. Crossley said. million dollars of UPEI’s fund- Atthe momentthe most ing. immediate sign of the Aspartofthe SMG, the upcomingcutscouldbe through Dean of Arts, Philip Smith Student Development, which feels, “the management group _ is described by its Director as, is keeping an eye on the uni- “front line intensive” and that versity’s mission”, which is any cuts to the department will founded on the tradition of a affect services. liberal education. He hopes When asked if student “with innovation the budgetwill input into budget options was not drive education decisions”. being used, members of the W. Pineau, the Deanof Senior Management Groupad- Science, voiced his ownopin- mitted that there is very little ion over some cabinet minis- direct input from students at ters’ comments that students _ this stage of planning. may have to study some else- The lack of direct stu- where if UPEI finds that itcan dent input into the budget ex- not offer certain courses. ercise has left many students “Weare lookingathow unhappy and concerned about to maintain quality which re- the quality of education that quires ingenuity”, he saidand UPEI will be capable of offer- continued on to say, “we are ing in the future. trying to find how not to shut Currently the UPEI Stu- down programs”, when asked dent Union is looking at what about the recent loss of Mt. position to take over issues Alison’s education and engi- related to the budget, such as neering departments. differential fees and has Dr. John Crossley, the passed a motion to support a university’s Vice-President petition asking for the univer- (academic operations), sity’s health centre to remain stressed that no fixed deci- open. sions have been made at this The Deans of Arts and time. The Senior Management Science defended UPEI’s abil- groupisonly lookingatoptions _ ity for gaining funding and pro- open to the university, based viding quality research for the onthe informationavailableat university and the province. this time. This ability could be affected if Dr.Crossleyagreedthat faculty become overloaded closing programs for UPEl is with teaching responsibilities at the bottom of the list cur- and larger classes, which are

options under review at this point.

Recent comments re- garding the age at which fac- ulty perform their best research has garnered an angry re- sponse from many faculty members, adding to the stress over the debate on the budget exercise.

Dean Pineau suggested the possibility of broadening UPEI’s degree granting pow- ers to offer graduate degrees, beyond those at the AVC, as an option to be discussed with the province.

These new graduate programs would provide addi- tional instructional aid, allow- ing for financial savings with- out compromising quality edu- cation. Another benefit of graduate programs is more research funding and tuition for these graduate students.

Neil Henry, Vice-Presi- dent (finance and facilities), included that until the universi- ty’s Board of Governors makes the budget decisions, sched- uled for the end of March, no decisions will be acted on. Neil Henry agrees this budget is, “one of the more difficult”, that he has had to go through.

The university’ s Senate was also mentioned by Dean Pineau, on how it should be- come more pro-active with regard to budget decisions as well.

Student Union execu- tive members reported on their meeting with Pat Mella, the government’s Treasury Min- ister, and her opinion that stu- dents should be making de- mands on the university for what type of education and services they want, and through those demands letting UPEI know where the cuts should be. The minister’s statement created an astonished stir among the council members.

This Thursday, the Stu- dent Union’s executive will meet with the Premier and Education Minister Chester Gillian. The executive hopes to have some good news com- ing out of this meeting.

UPEI is still uncertain how deep the government cuts will be or how the cuts will be applied to the university. Re-

action to the budget planing has been mixed across cam- pus. Until the province’s budget comes down the uni- versity will have to put its fu- ture plans on hold and wait.

- Note: Next issue com- ments and reaction on the budget.

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