Board of Governor’s rep Frank Finley gives pre-report at SLC
By Enobong Ukpong, March 28 2022—
This week’s Student Legislative Council (SLC) meeting took place on Mar 22. This week’s topic of discussion was the Board of Governor’s pre-report presented by the SLC Board of Governors’ representative Frank Finley.
The Board of Governors’ pre-report is prepared to inform the SLC of decisions that will be voted on in an upcoming Board of Governors meeting. A major discussion point is the approval of the 2022-2023 Consolidated and Capital Budget –– an annual budget for the next year.
Things to note were that the total budget for the next year is $1.5 billion for the university.
“The Campus Alberta Operating Grant, where the university receives most of its government funding provincially, has been reduced again, this time by five point two per cent,” said Finley. “This is a slightly smaller decrease than we’ve seen in other years, which have ranged from about six to seven and a half per cent.”
The capital renewal and maintenance fund, which helps pay for infrastructure costs inside the campus, was reduced by 20 per cent.
In good news, the federal grants and investment income of the university has slightly increased.
“This is good at a time that has been pretty difficult for institutions across the world, especially in Canada, with the pandemic, with governments generally cutting back on what they can provide for post-secondary education,” said Finley.
It was noted by Nicole Schmidt, the Students’ Union (SU) president, that there has been a reduction in terms of the proportion and amount of grants and scholarships paid out to students, calling into question whether the university is backing out of its promise to keep grants and scholarships consistent, if not slightly higher. This is particularly concerning given that tuition will continue to increase in the 2022-2023 year.
Finley clarified, however, that there may be an explanation for this in the upcoming Board of Governors’ meeting.
Agendas, minutes and upcoming meetings for SLC can be found online. Agendas, minutes and upcoming meetings for the Board of Governor