‘We made some difficult decisions’: University trying to shed budget deficit

How is the University of Windsor handling a projected $30M loss this year? CTV Windsor’s Bob Bellacicco looks into it.

The University of Windsor was facing a $42 million budget deficit, over $30 million of it coming from the loss of tuition from international students.

The university didn’t cut scholarships or important student programs but there is some pain many are trying to maneuver through. Gillian Heisz, vice president of Finance and Operations, said other costs increased the overall deficit to $42 million.

“We eliminated vacant positions. We made some really difficult decisions impacting staff,” Heisz explained. “We obviously have a hiring freeze for a number of months now and had to do some layoffs.

The University cut part-time teachers, sessional instructors, tightened up contracts and renegotiated with vendors.

Heisz said the university saved $11.2 million through staff reductions, but doesn’t know what the total number of layoffs will be.

“Since the fall, we think we’ve helped around 50 to 55 who are close to retirement with a little extra money to move on, which has been great. It’s good for the university’s financial position, but it’s also great for the staff member,” Heisz said.

Pierre Boulos, president of the Windsor University Faculty Association, is concerned over the potential effect, “The difficulty with that is if we bleed too many of our faculty members, what does that do to our ability to maintain programing for our students?”

The university said pausing intake rather than cancelling a program is something they are constantly evaluating.

Boulos points out the original deficit of $30 million, announced late last year, was based on estimates.

“Just look at the university’s out audited financial statements. These come out in October and for the last couple of years, the university actually had more revenue than expenditures,” Boulos said.

The university has also received government funding, which helped them cut the budget deficit to about $4.4 million, which works out to about 1.5 per cent of the operating budget.

“Things that aren’t included in operating funds are things like scholarships and those things that don’t go into running this place, pensions and things like that,” said Boulos, who suggested the university may have used projections to motivate layoffs.

“People were angry with each other. Now they have all these bumping campaigns and all these other unions, and they don’t even have the human resources to manage all those,” said Boulos.

With a 25 per cent decline in international student enrollment, the university us budgeting for just under 15,000 students next year.

“Hopefully we’ll have a lift on enrolment versus what we budget. That’s obviously the ideal situation. If not, we’ll be looking for in-year savings,” said Boulos.

Heisz said the longest the university has gone with a deficit budget is three years. This is year two. She’s hoping to reduce the pressure next year or the year after, “But with the number of unknowns out there right now around government support, international students, hard to say. Hope I’ll have a clearer picture in October.”

That is when the enrollment number are solidified.