Other Colleges Facing Budget Woes

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C. -  The College of New Caledonia is not the only community college facing a funding crunch.

Selkirk College which serves the Trail, Castlegar area, is also facing a deficit which will be larger than   CNC’s; Selkirk President Marilyn Luscombe says the numbers will be in the $1.8 to $1.9 million dollar range.  “We had expected a deficit of about $1.2 million dollars, but the latest development is that the Ministry has advised there will be a 2.6% reduction across the board, that adds about $620 thousand dollars to the deficit.”  Luscombe says she is not in a position to say which programs would be cut or how many staff will have to be let go but she says there is only one way to reduce the costs, “Certainly there will have to be staff reductions.”

Northern Lights College out of Dawson Creek is just going through its budget process and is not yet prepared to say if there will be a financial challenge.

College of the Rockies in Cranbrook is another facility facing a deficit.  President Dr. Nick Rubidge says his college will be about $1.1 million in the red.  “We are in the process of trying to unravel the implications of the funding, and how we will deal with it” says Rubidge.  Like the College of New Caledonia, the College of the Rockies was seeing real growth “We have exceeded our FTE targets for eight years and we have undergone a campus expansion.” He says the challenge now is to find some way of maintaining that space.  

The problem for colleges and universities is that the Ministry of Advanced Education is now moving towards targeted funding, specifically to trades, health care and aboriginal student capacity.  Under targeted funding, the dollars for a trades program for example, cannot be used for general operations.  Students in trades would use the same services provided to other students, but the funding for trades would not spill over to cover those “common costs”.   In an interview with Opinion 250, the Minister of Advanced Education, Murray Coell says he believes colleges and universities have “room to manoeuvre” within their budgets. He says the programs should reflect what is desired by the community.  He points to  increased (targeted) funding for programs such as nursing as an example, saying there is a need throughout the province,  and in particular the north, for nurses. (See Minister Coell’s Letter to the Editor)

There is a growing concern rural colleges will suffer the most, as they have a different demographic and offer satellite campuses.  That means smaller classes and higher costs.   Dr. Nick Rubidge says the funding disparity poses a real threat to community colleges “I think the long term implication will be a migration into urban colleges, and that will mean a loss of choice and diversity for rural students.”

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