All Posts Tagged With: "budget"
N.S. throws money at students
Provincial budget geared at keeping students in the province
Nova Scotia’s budget does some amazing things for students. It reduces tuition by more than $1,000 per year. It institutes a debt cap, making sure that nobody gets in too deep. It even adds to textbook credits and improves the earning allowance.
And the province had better keep up the good work, or they won’t have any students left to serve. More than 60 per cent of the province’s population is over 30 years old and post-secondary enrolment is dropping steadily from year to year.
Ask the province’s student organizations what the reason is and they point to one thing: Out-migration to escape debt.
The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations wrote to provincial MLAs this year:
“A 2009 survey of over 1,500 students done by the Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations suggested that students with over $26,000 in debt were 20 per cent more likely to leave the province after graduation.”
Studies have consistently said that students saddled with enormous debt loads at graduation are less likely to contribute to the wider economy by buying a house or a car.
Nova Scotia’s budget is wisely trying to stem the tide of students heading out of province to study and, afterward, work. In doing so, they’re trying to save their own economic future. Expect this to be the first salvo in a running war to convince students to not only study in Nova Scotia, but also build their lives there.
No end to money woes for UWinnipeg student reps
University of Winnipeg Students’ Association AGM sees deficit continue to grow
The University of Winnipeg Students’ Association (UWSA) saw it’s deficit continue to grow after its annual general meeting last Thursday, reported campus newspaper The Uniter.
In a comment posted on The Uniter’s website, UWSA president Jason Syvixay explained that UWSA originally presented a budget for the 2011-2012 year with a projected deficit of $63 000, but that it will be amending the budget to address the concerns raised by students at the AGM. However, he wasn’t clear on what the budget would look like.
This comes after UWSA estimated running a $167 000 deficit by the end of the 2010-2011 academic year last September, due to the costs of running a daycare for U of W staff and students on campus and restructuring UWSA staff payment by switching from honorariums to hourly wages.
Thursday’s meeting saw a motion brought forward from the U of W Aboriginal Student Council to increase their budget from $6 800 to $25 000, which was passed after over half of the 100 students in attendance voted in favour of the increase.
Several student group leaders voiced their concerns with the motion, saying it was unfair to reward that kind of increase to one student group, though others argued that the ASC has faced underfunding in the past.
Another hot button issue addressed at the AGM was the proposal to close the UWSA-run Soma Cafe, which provides healthy, fair trade food options for the U of W community. The cafe hasn’t turned a profit since it was opened three years ago, and the organization had budgeted for its closure. However, student support prevailed as those in attendance voted in favour of allocating $150 000 of UWSA funds to keep the cafe open. Students who wanted to save the cafe argued that it was a valuable meeting space and that its closure would lead to several students losing their jobs, according to The Uniter.
A controversial motion was also brought forward by president Jason Syvixay to eliminate the position of CFS liason director, who argued that the director’s work should instead be integrated into the duties of all UWSA staff. The motion was postponed as there were no longer enough people in attendance to make quorum by the time the motion was presented.
Too bad student-friendly budget doesn’t matter
Potential federal election just a distraction from wider issues
The 2011 budget proposed by the Conservative government contained a bevy of good news for students, but due to the increasing likelihood of a federal election being called by the end of the month, or even the week, students won’t see these new initiatives come to life.
In the likely event that the budget is voted down, or a motion of non-confidence passes in the House of Commons, all bills that have not received royal assent die on the spot. That includes the budget and all its student-friendly gains.
The interest-free study-period for part-time students? Gone. The $40,000 tuition credit for doctors and nurses who work in rural Canada? Gone. The boost to Canada Student Loans? Gone.
This also includes the recently introduced private member’s bill proposing the creation of a post-secondary act, put forth by NDP MP Niki Ashton. It’s a bill that seeks to streamline post-secondary funding from the federal government to the provinces and add criteria and conditions to the funds.
The Conservatives could be found in contempt of parliament — a Canadian first. The Carlton Carson scandal is a smear on their leadership and the Oda scandal reeks of entitlement. But Ignatieff’s Liberals aren’t likely to make gains as much as 10 points, nor can spunky Jack Layton hope to unseat the Conservative power house.
Canadians are likely to elect another minority Conservative government because, to be honest, they don’t have much else to choose from: Conservative entitlement, Liberal flacidness or … the NDP. With such an outcome likely, the election is a stunt that is a mere distraction to wider issues. And it’s going to hurt students.
Elections are important aspects of democracy. But with so few options, and so little in the way of game-changers that are likely to oust a government, I can’t help but think how futile an exercise this is. When no major shift in power is likely, an election is little but an exercise in futility that hurts the average Canadian and, this time around, especially students.
Doctors, nurses to get student loan breaks
Tories meeting at least 2 NDP budget demands
Ottawa has lifted the veil on two measures that will be included in Tuesday’s federal budget a day early, both of which were on the NDP’s list of demands. Along with reviving the EcoEnergy retrofit program, the budget will also include money to entice doctors and nurses to work in remote areas. Under the terms of the new federal program, doctors will be eligible for up to $40,000 in student loan forgiveness if they relocate to rural or remote areas, while nurses can receive up to $20,000 if they do the same. According to a Globe and Mail report, the budget will also include a Children’s Arts Tax Credit, a program to help Canadian Forces members find jobs in the construction industry, $50-million for the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo and $4-million for the Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute. It’s still not clear, however, whether the measures will be enough to convince the NDP to support the government and avert an election.
Living on social assistance
Looking back at the “OSAP diet” campaign
Some time ago I wrote a couple of pieces about OUSA‘s campaign revolving around the so-called OSAP Diet. The idea was to draw attention to the fact that post-secondary students, living on OSAP, are budgeted at $225/month for food, or $7.50 a day. I’ll draw your attention to the older stories if you want to catch up, but suffice it to say that a lot of the debate revolves around whether or not students should reasonably be expected to cook their own meals and pack lunches for themselves, and whether or not a daily Starbucks “coffee” (read $5 frappasomething) constitutes a necessary food expense.
Related: The OSAP diet and the student lifestyle
Related: Budgeting for the real world
Now I’m all for giving students a livable budget for their studies, and we can debate back and forth just what that budget should be, but I was underwhelmed then and I remain incredibly skeptical now about the verbiage thrown around in context of this campaign. Students continually referred to this as “poverty” (for which no official definition exists in Canada, by the way) and suggested it was simply impossible to eat healthily on this budget. I won’t put further words in the mouths of the OUSA campaigners, however, and if you’d like to view the results of their experiment you can do so here.
My major issue, all along, is that comparisons to poverty and even starvation are rather apoplectic when welfare recipients in Ontario (excuse me, “public assistance”) receive so much less. If students imagine that they are starving on $225 a month, you’d expect those on welfare to be literally dropping dead. And in fact the reality isn’t far short of that. If OSAP represents a diet then welfare is a real famine. It isn’t so much that I resent students for their campaign for more funds as I’m rather embarrassed when it ignores such a terrible and inevitable contrast. It suggests, much as I hate to admit it, that students are fine with our most vulnerable starving just as long as they can avoid packing their meals for school.
Anyway, I was reminded of this again when the Star (which is rapidly becoming Canada’s best investigative newspaper) ran a similar experiment. In context of The Stop’s “Do The Math” Campaign the Star asked some prominent Torontoians to try living on a true welfare diet. The results were very much like what OUSA wishes it could demonstrate about the OSAP situation. We’re talking about true, desperate poverty now–visits to the food bank, reliance on public agencies, excitement at receiving a doggie bag to take home following a free lunch. The article made me cringe. Now we’re not talking about students who simply fail at cooking their own meals. We’re talking about very competent adults using every tool they have, and still struggling.
Most affecting in this story was an observation from Catherine Mihevc, Councillor Joe Mihevc‘s 11 year-old daughter, and which pretty much secured my lifetime support of his political career. Their entire family participated in the challenge, and she said that she and her sister were rarely hungry because their parents let them eat first. For me that’s a part of my immediate family history. My grandparents were refugees and their children always ate first too, when things were bad. As the children got older they knew to leave enough for their mother, because otherwise she simply wouldn’t eat. And this is what true poverty looks like. These are the strategies that it teaches.
I hate to ever set one group’s claims in direct competition with another’s. There is no reason why adequate funding for post-secondary studies needs to come at the expense of livable public assistance, or vice versa. But I do wish OUSA could have adopted a wider view on this issue, because the OSAP Diet campaign unavoidably trivializes the real problems that some people experience in simply feeding themselves and their children. It locates the needs of those who rely on public assistance outside of any operative definition of human norms. And really, that is exactly the problem with the system as is stands. No one is even trying to be realistic. Welfare is viewed as a punishment, not as an adequate amount of money to subsist on. And that has got to change.
Anyway, it’s something to think about the next time you stop at Starbucks. Or perhaps even before you do.
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Questions are welcome at jeff.rybak@utoronto.ca. You can also follow me on Twitter.
Budgeting for the real world
The OSAP Diet experiment yields results already
My last piece was a response to the “OSAP Diet” experiment, as undertaken by the OUSA. On first pass I was underwhelmed by the idea. Living on $7.50/day for food doesn’t seem too radical to me. But unexpectedly I find the project has become very interesting. It’s demonstrating that students are shockingly ignorant about budgeting, food costs, and the world as it appears to anyone paying their own bills.
The Varsity ran a piece in their current issue, taking students’ reactions to the campaign. I’d love to link directly to the article in the paper but I think this content doesn’t make it to their website. If anyone can find it, somewhere, please let me know. In the meanwhile, I’ll simply say that six students at random were stopped on campus and questioned on the topic, including their own budgets and spending habits. The article comes with first names and photos, but I’ll omit them for now. Let’s just say I’m protecting the ludicrous. Their comments are as follows:
- “I think it’s hard for students living on $7.50 a day to actually get things done. It adds to the stress of trying to live day to day. I’d spend about $20 a day, or try to anyway.”
- “I don’t think it’s enough at all. If I were living alone, I think I’d spend over $20 a day on food. I mean, just one coffee is $5, and that’s almost the entire OSAP allowance.”
- “I’d say I spend about $15 a day, not including alcohol, but that changes during exam time due to time constraints. I certainly couldn’t live on $7.50 a day.”
- “A meal itself is $5-10, so I’d say I spend $30-40 a day. If they can do it, good for them–if they’re not thin and gaunt by the end, that is.”
- “I’d say I spend at least $15, and I cook a lot, so that’s not even eating out. Good food costs more than junk food, too.”
- “That’s definitely way too low for food. It’s possible, but a bit of a stretch. I probably spend about $15 a day.”
This is a sample group of six. Probably not enough to draw elaborate conclusions from. But I’ll make some preliminary observations and then I’ll suggest that I’d love to learn more and in fact I think this experiment could have wide implications for our approach to education.
First, we’ve got the $5 coffee again. Someone needs to find whoever it is at Starbucks who managed to redefine their elaborate concoctions as reasonable daily beverage purchases and give that person an award. But leaving aside the one rhetorical point, many students seem to classify daily retail food purchases as part of a standard, baseline budget. Some simply assume that every meal must cost whatever a restaurant is charging. The difference between eating on a budget and splurging on a meal is, apparently, the distinction between MacDonald’s and sushi. And that’s just insane.
Second, most students fail at cooking and have no sense at all of how to shop. For the ones who live at home with parents this may be considered normal, perhaps. But even so, you might expect they’d know the difference between grocery shopping on a budget and not. I hate to sound like an old guy here, grumbling stupidly about “kids today,” but when I was a kid my mother took me grocery shopping. And she showed me how to find cheaper stuff and things on sale. Hell, we even bought dented cans sometimes. I’m not saying every student needs to go that far and in fact we often didn’t. But at least I learned the difference.
Big, fat cheques for student execs
Are students getting their money’s worth from student leaders?
Being a student union executive is not an easy job. It’s (more or less) a full time job that deals with serious issues, with the added pressure of being in the public eye. Balancing the demands of a diverse student population with one’s own beliefs is a difficult task, especially when coupled with fiscal and legal responsibilities.
So imagine how frustrating it must be when somebody like me is sitting across the table, criticizing every move you make and demanding better at every turn.
But when you are getting paid upwards of $30,000 a year like executives of the Carleton University Students’ Association, students have a right to demand better.
And students like myself will, because we care. I care about students, and I care about how my money is spent. That’s why last week I found myself vocally opposed to the CUSA budget, proposed by vice-president finance Meera Chander.
I thought I brought up a pretty good point. The original budget, presented to the financial review committee before the meeting, had a typo – one that meant Chander had an additional $9,000 to spend on behalf of the students. But instead of taking her time and finding the best way to spend that money, she created a $9,000 contingency fund.
I thought Chander owed it to herself and the students to take a little time and review that spending. I suggested we could pass the budget at the next meeting. She’s worked hard on that budget for three months. It hardly seemed fair to make a snap decision on $9,000.
To be honest, I don’t think a contingency fund is a bad idea. In fact, considering how much contingency cash CUSA spent last year during the Ottawa bus strike, it might be a good way to spend that money. But if it was absolutely necessary, why didn’t she budget any money for contingency to begin with?
She didn’t respond to my critique. And neither did any other member of the executive. Not even a council member.
Maybe it’s because the meeting was held late Friday night, and people just wanted to go home. Maybe councillors were genuinely more interested in what was happening on their cell phones. Or maybe they didn’t want to squabble over $9,000 in a budget of nearly $1.9 million.
But whatever the case, they simply didn’t care enough to discuss it. Maybe it would have been different if it was coming out of Chander’s pocket – heck, a $9,000 pay cut would almost bring her down to the average for a student union executive.
But it’s not coming out of her pocket. It’s coming out of mine, and every other undergraduate student who attends Carleton University.
That’s why I care.
I don’t think student executive salaries are too high. But if the average student knew how much student executives got paid, or knew they had multi-million dollar budgets, they might be a little less apathetic.
So I urge students everywhere to consider this question: are you getting your money’s worth?
I am eager to hear your responses.
How much does your student union executive get paid?
And is it too much? Or not enough?
Every student union is a little different, but they all have one thing in common: they don’t work for free. Student unions often have multi-million dollar budgets, and you can bet the people in charge are getting a good chunk of your money.
But just how much? I did a little digging, and pulled the numbers from every student union in Ontario that’s a member of the Canadian Federation of Students – easily accessible list of websites, if you’re wondering why. Or at least I tried to. Only 12 CFS-O schools have online budgets (that I could find), while 25 don’t.
No matter. I pulled the numbers as best I could. Salaries for each executive were sometimes lumped together, sometimes seperated. Benefits were often unclear and tied in with other expenses. Executives wages were not always seperated from other full time employees. Some of these budgets are two or three years old. So if anybody has more recent or accurate numbers, I would love to see them. But overall, this gives us a little bit of perspective.
The average executive receives about $16,757 in remuneration ($19,705 for undergrads, $10,860 for grad students.) The average executive slate is paid about 13 per cent of the student union budget (15 per cent for undergrads, nine per cent for grad students.)
Here’s the list, in order of average executive financial remuneration (includes salary, benefits, honorariums, etc.)
1. Carleton University – $36,599
2. University of Guelph Central Student Association – $30,335
3. University of Windsor Students’ Alliance – $27,682
4. University of Toronto Students’ Union – $26,171*
5. University of Ottawa Graduate Students’ Association – $16,110
6. Trent Central Student Association – $13,075
7. Scarborough Campus Students’ Union – $12,703*
8. University of Western Ontario Society of Graduate Students – $11,419
9. Queen’s University Society of Graduate and Professional Students – $8,480
10. University of Toronto at Mississauga Students’ Union – $7,574
11. University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union – $7,432
12. Glendon College Students’ Union – $3,500
* UTSU and SCSU both include their executive salaries with those of directors, co-ordinators, and other important staff; these numbers are the average of the pay of all these positions
So what do you think – do student leaders get paid enough? Or do they get paid too much? I’d love to hear your comments, and if anybody has any information about student unions that I haven’t covered I’d love to share it with the readers.
Brandon to leave 5 per cent of prof jobs empty
University needs to find $1.2 million in cuts to balance its budget
According to the Winnipeg Free Press, Brandon University is going to leave five per cent of its professor positions vacant for the next school year.
Jobs won’t be eliminated, but 11 of 220 faculty positions will be left vacant next year, according to the school’s vice-president of finance.
The university needs to cut about $1.25 million, and is attempting to balance its budget by leaving the jobs vacant, digging into reserve funds and making a variety of small cuts across the school’s campus. For more, click here.
Aussie universities big winners in Rudd budget
Gov’t promises extra $5.3 billion, hopes to increase undergrad enrolment by 50,000
Australian universities were big winners earlier this week when the Australian Labour Party (the left of centre party in what is effectively a two party system) tabled its latest budget.
The university sector will be receiving an additional $5.3 billion over six years. The government hopes to increase enrolment by 50,000 undergraduate students by 2015.
The budget includes a significant overall of student financial aid policies, according to the Australian Broadcasting Company.
Ontario pledges $100M for genomics research
Minister says funds will support “globally significant, collaborative research projects” in province
From the CBC:
The Ontario government has announced $100 million in new funding for genomics research, an effort to attract top researchers from around the world and keep them in the province.
Minister of Research and Innovation John Wilkinson announced the new $100 million Global Leadership Round in Genomics and Life Sciences will support “globally significant, collaborative research projects” headquartered in Ontario.
Scientists who work in either genomics, gene-related research, or research into stem cells or proteins will be eligible to compete for the new funds.
The announcement comes after the federal government angered researchers failing to provide a new round of funding for Genome Canada, the not-for-profit agency responsible for funding large-scale science and genetics projects.
In April, Genome Canada announced it was pulling its support for an international stem cell consortium because of the lack of funds.
The federal budget also called for $147.9 million in cuts over three years to the three agencies that grant research funds to universities.
The “best student aid package in the country”
Newfoundland and Labrador eliminates interest on the provincial portion of student loans
The government of Newfoundland and Labrador has released its 2009 Budget. The budget, which has a $750 million deficit, makes a number of changes to student financial assistance that, according to the minister of education, provide for the “best student aid package in the country”. Spending initiatives that will impact the student pocketbook include:
- a continuation of the tuition fee freeze at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the College of the North Atlantic;
- an increase in up-front, non-repayable, needs-based grants from $70 to $80 per week of study; and
- the elimination of interest on the provincial portion of student loans.
Budget 2009: PSE voices
Was the budget hot or not? Canadian education experts weigh in
“Overall, the PSE community should on balance be happy with this budget. $2.75 billion in infrastructure is a simply massive investment, and its effects will be felt and appreciated at campuses across the country. The lack of new funds for expanded research efforts is disappointing, and reduces what could have been a home-run of a budget to perhaps a ground-rule double.” — Alex Usher, Educational Policy Institute
“Infrastructure funding is crucial, no doubt, however, if there is not a parallel commitment to ensure adequate funding for students and institutions we will witness strange times at post-secondary institutions as new buildings go up, while students and teachers wait out in the cold for government support.” — Howie Bender, Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance
“Canada’s colleges and institutes badly need an infusion of new capital to renovate, retrofit and expand facilities, and to acquire leading-edge technology for teaching purposes. This budget has announced measures to help address these needs and to provide increased capacity for advanced skills development.” — James Knight, Association of Canadian Community Colleges
“It’s good to expand the capacity of our institutions but if potential students don’t believe they can take on new debt in the middle of a recession, those seats will remain empty.” — Zach Churchill, Canadian Alliance of Student Associations
“At current levels, student debt depresses consumer spending and could harm the Canadian economy’s recovery. The federal government missed an important opportunity to help students and their families out of a $13 billion hole.” — Katherine Giroux-Bougard, Canadian Federation of Students
“Investment in post-secondary education and research is one of the best ways to stimulate the economy both in the short term and over the long run. The Harper Government missed an important opportunity in its limited initiatives for our universities and colleges.” — Penni Stewart, Canadian Association of University Teachers
“When I do the math on 30 per cent of $2 billion, based on what an average project might cost, it really doesn’t go very far. So I’m not holding my breath.” — Rick Buis, Lethbridge College
“I’m mystified at any move to cut operating support [for federal granting councils] at the very time they are sending such a powerful signal on their priorities by investing in infrastructure and scholarships.” — Heather Munroe-Blum, McGill University
“Universities will identify projects that are ready to go and will deal with urgent maintenance issues such as upgrading buildings, labs and research facilities. In these difficult economic times, supporting universities’ ability to contribute to Canada’s short-term recovery and long-term growth has an even greater significance.” — Tom Traves, Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.
Tough economy sees record number of university applicants in Ont.
More students means a higher cut-off average for many exclusive programs
A tough economy is being cited as the reason behind record-level university application numbers in Ontario.
The Council of Ontario Universities says 84,300 applications have been submitted this year – a 1.1 per cent increase over a record set in 2008. The council says the figure is 42 per cent higher than the 59,197 applications made in 2000.
Peter George, chairman of the Council of Ontario Universities, says more people see a university degree as key to a successful career, “particularly when economic conditions are challenging.”
The only year with a higher total was the “double cohort” year of 2003.
That’s when 102,618 students applied to universities after the cancellation of Grade 13, causing two classes to graduate in the same year.
The council said the number of people applying for university typically increases during economic downturns.
“Applicants know that this is a good time to attend university and get that degree or to upgrade their skills, Paul C. Genest, council president, said in a release.
Last year, some 84,000 high school students applied for 64,000 spots at Ontario’s 20 universities.
Grade cut-offs change every year, and vary for each program in each institution. Last year, most schools made offers to students with minimum grades averaging in the mid-70s or 80s.
Several stringent programs made offers only to students whose average grade was in the low to mid-90 range. Those programs included McMaster University’s health sciences, York University’s Schulich School of Business and biotechnology at the University of Waterloo.
Some universities begin making offers of admission as early as February, but most institutions send out rolling offers until late May.
- The Canadian Press
Economic crisis threatens staffing, student aid
Salaried positions might be cut, along with scholarships and bursaries
Post-secondary administrators across the country say the global economic crisis is threatening everything from staffing levels to scholarships, and one Ontario school announced Thursday it plans to cut tens of millions of dollars from its budget.
Wilfrid Laurier University needs to cut its operating budget by nearly 16 per cent over three years – about $31 million – to address “unprecedented financial challenges” that are affecting the university sector, said president Max Blouw.
“I think it’s a bit premature to judge at this time what will be the targets of scaled-back expenditures … but it’s almost certain that some salaried positions will in fact be impacted, and I don’t think I can reasonably say that won’t be the case,” he said.
“And scholarships and bursaries, the way in which we attract the most qualified, talented students, might be impacted.”
A precipitous drop in the value of pension and endowment funds and insufficient funding from the provincial government made the upcoming cuts a necessity, Blouw said.
The University of Toronto made a similar announcement a few weeks ago in disclosing plans to hold off on planned wage increases for its president, vice-presidents and vice-provosts, principals and deans, and some senior administrative staff.
“We are already feeling these financial pressures, and it appears that the situation will be materially more difficult in 2009-2010 and perhaps again in 2010-2011,” president David Naylor said in a message on the school’s website.
“I ask that all faculty and staff work collaboratively to contain expenditures with an eye not only to immediate challenges but especially to 2009-2010.”
The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada says schools across the country are facing similar struggles and is calling on the federal government to provide $2.4 billion in infrastructure funding in its upcoming budget to avert any further cuts.
