Alex Kvaskov | News Editor
Featured image: York’s ongoing capital projects are safe and sound from the 2.5 per cent operating budget cuts. | Amir Yazdanparast
York is facing budget cuts as it gets closer to implementing a new budget model, although the university is not in a financial crisis, according to faculty members.The Shared Accountability & Resource Planning model, or SHARP, will be implemented in May 2017, and is supposed to improve accountability and “reward entrepreneurial behaviour” for faculties. The model will allow faculties to distribute funds directly into their units and activities.
According to York, SHARP’s guiding principles are supporting the university’s academic goals by aligning resources to priorities and providing a predictable and sustainable framework for planning and clarity in the way resources are allocated.
York spokesperson Barbara Joy says faculties can invest funds according to their priorities after contributing their share of an institutional strategic investment fund and paying the costs of the administrative support services they use.
“This new model provides a higher level of autonomy and control over revenues and expenses to faculties as they work to implement their academic plans,” she adds.
Amid the ongoing reorganization, York continues to implement annual “across the board” cuts that have been mandatory under the current incremental budget model.
“These cuts have been required to help balance the university’s operating budget, as expenses have been growing at a faster rate than our revenues,” points out Joy.
“The specific impact of the cuts is addressed differently in each faculty and administrative area of the university, as each has to deal with the particular circumstances in their areas.”
Joy notes that budget cuts relate to York’s operating budget, while major building and renovation projects are funded through a separate capital budget. York anticipates that already-announced capital projects will continue.
The latest 2.5 per cent cut should not affect any important university functions, but it remains unclear what is on the chopping block.
“There’s a cut every year, it’s normal,” says York University Faculty Association President Richard Wellen. “The cut isn’t what you’d normally think. It’s less money that they would want to spend,” he adds.
Wellen says SHARP is a form of “activity-based budgeting” that will replace the old “incremental” model that allocates money in relation to historical baselines.
York’s 2016 Budget Planning Update from June reveals projections for the 2018-19 fiscal year include total tuition fee revenue increases of $10 million and total compensation increases of $10 million, which should boost the cumulative surplus in the next two to three years.
With files from Shadia Balram
