College Faculty Association Makes Presentation to Board

Friday, April 18, 2008 01:30 PM

Prince George ,B.C. - As the College of New Caledonia faces a budget crisis it is looking to suspend programs and cut staff in order to ballance the books.

The Faculty Association has made a presentation to the College Board offering some suggestions.

The recommendations include calls for both administrative and service reorganization, including demands to:

* return to the senior administrative structure of 4 years ago – 1 Vice President rather than 3

* stop replacing operational staff positions with excluded positions and return them to the operational staff

* reverse the practice of hiring associate deans/directors to compliment existing dean/director positions

* reduce the HR dept which has grown to 2 managers + 5 exempt staff from 1 manager, 1 clerk, and 2 exempt staff

* cut the Marketing/Recruitment budget, tie the budget to results and return to a committee of volunteers to direct recruitment activities

* return Community/Continuing Education to the program divisions and eliminate redundant costs for services

* cut the Institute for Learning and Teaching and roll the IT support into Computer Services

* explore other cost-savings like limiting travel

The Faculty Association also provided recommendations on how cost-savings could be utilized as well as providing innovative alternatives as funding resources. These ideas included:

* restore the Forestry program using woodlot funds and seeking federal funding and/or sponsorship for students

* restore the programs (or combination of the programs) for persons with disabilities (Target, JET, Open Doors) and seek Community Living and Ministry of Health support

* recommit to the 3 year plan for Business: The Next Generation

* restore History and Geography disciplines and seek funding to run the First Nations Certificate/Diploma program and Ministry of Education funding for Education students

* restore the Northern Outdoor Recreation and Ecotourism Certificate – a low cost program with a large significance for Valemount

* rebuild CTC options in the Hospitality and Culinary Arts programs

* restore Athletics programs

The Board is making its final budget decisions at a meeting this hour.

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Posted on Friday, April 18, 2008 01:30 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: tinyapplecork on April 18 2008 4:04 PM

This was a public meeting that we were not allowed to speak at! WHAT A FARCE!

Posted by: tinyapplecork on April 18 2008 4:11 PM

They could fund everything the faculty put forth if the board took a 2% pay cut IMO.
According to one member, he rebutted and said paycuts are illegal. Wow...things that make u go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Say what?

Posted by: Dirtyrottenresearcher on April 18 2008 6:07 PM

The public CNC Board meeting is actually a public session of the board meeting. It is not a public meeting, though there is an opportunity for members of the public to speak, provided that they apply in advance. Given the nature of the discussions it would have been reasonable to let members of the public speak, but the decisions had already been made.

The board held an 'in camera' session Friday, a private session to hear registered presentations in the morning, a subsequent 'in camera' session and then the public session where the announcements were made. The board itself consists of appointees who outnumber the elected members. The board members are not salaried, so a pay cut makes no sense. The salaries of staff and faculty are negotiated in collective agreements which expire in 2010 and these are provincially negotiated for faculty and locally negotiated for staff. Administrators salaries are on a pay scale set by the province and board. The administrators salaries are actually lower than competitive salaries for that sort of work, and faculty salaries for BC are about 6th lowest in the country. Cuts to salaries are not likely the answer.

Some of the suggestions presented by the people working at the college in terms of where the money is spent should bear some looking at - educational programmes should be the last thing cut. Certainly programmes for the disabled save this province a lot of money over the lives of the people who are more productive in their communities than they otherwise might be without such help.

Education is an investment, not a cost. The sooner the provincial government realizes that money spent on education is always returned many times to the economy, then the sooner that this province will truly be what it can be.