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gateway March 27th, 2013
Issue No. 26
Volume 103
THE
TH E O F F IC IA L STUDE NT NE WS PA P E R AT TH E UN I V ER S I T Y OF A LBERTA
Feature
The Gateway’s frugal fashionistas delve into the bargain bins for a thrifting adventure - page 14 provincial budget
BoG peeved with mandate April Hudson
news editor @april_hudson Two weeks after the release of a provincial budget that shocked Alberta’s post-secondary education system, the Ministry of Enterprise and Advanced Education has released letters of expectation to the province’s 26 institutions. Originally called “mandate letters,” the letters of expectation include general guidelines for postsecondary institutions as well as some specific requests, many of which are designed to bring Alberta’s institutions closer together under the umbrella of a Campus Alberta brand. For the University of Alberta, facing a 7.2 per cent cut to its operating grant, some of these requests
include a focus on sustainability in response to the Alberta Budget 2013, active promotion of the Campus Alberta brand and logo and a 10 per cent increase in the development of “seamless learner pathways,” which include transfer agreements, dual credit and support for the mobility and success of students. “For any increase, you need to have a baseline and you need to know exactly what you’re measuring … what (you) mean by ‘seamless mobility of students,’ for example,” said the U of A’s Acting Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Martin Ferguson-Pell during a press conference Monday afternoon. “We do need more time to look at this carefully — and most importantly, we need to consult with our colleagues across campus.”
The letter also requires a reduction in administrative costs and program duplication across Campus Alberta institutions and action to increase access for what the letter refers to as “learners.” But Ferguson-Pell contends that access is more easily talked about than achieved, and is limited more by program space than other barriers — a factor further limited by decreased funding. “Even students at the U of A in Science, who wish to transfer into Engineering, for example, struggle to do that even with very high GPAs, just because of the available number of slots,” Ferguson-Pell said. Twelve members of the Board of Governors, including board chair Doug Goss, signed a letter to Alberta Premier Alison Redford and
the general public Monday detailing some of the concerns they have with the funding cuts and letter of expectation the U of A received. Noting the contribution the U of A makes to Alberta’s economy, the letter adds the Board of Governors is committed to working with the government to make Alberta’s post-secondary system as effective as possible, but adds the U of A and other institutions need to emerge stronger than before. “Being just another “average” university is not something that is part of our vision, nor is it something that
we can accept,” the letter states. This, in Goss’s opinion, means taking a careful and thoughtful approach to re-modelling and re-investing in Alberta’s post-secondary system. “We want to make sure that we’re not making any short-term decisions that imperil the long-term vision of higher education,” he said. “The trick is to make sure we work together to make decisions, both in the short term and the long term, to get us to the right place.”
PLEASE SEE cuts PAGE 5
#3LF
“Sigh.. budget troubles. Everyone get ready for Three Lines Buck Fifty”
page 10