Here we are, moving into springtime, and we still do not know what the plan is to address the University’s projected deficit.

Over the past three and a half months the deficit has been reduced from $62.8 million to $40.7 million. We continue to be told that the deficit is primarily the responsibility of the Faculty of Arts and Science. FAS is the largest faculty of six in the institution, home to more than 60% of all students. The assignment of almost all the Queen’s University deficit to just one of its faculties is a direct and predictable consequence of the University’s own decision, a decade ago, to adopt an approach to budgeting that treats each faculty as a distinct and separate economic unit. This approach persists, despite the 2019 provincial government decision to freeze and reduce tuition, which has had a disproportionate impact on the Faculty of Arts and Science. It persists despite statements by the Principal that the budget model needs changing to better reflect the values and academic mission of the University. Activity-based budgets – which is more or less the model we have at Queen’s – take a “fundamentally commercial approach to the distribution of resources (one in which units ‘earn’ their revenues and therefore are assumed in principle to retain the full right to their use),” wrote Principal Deane in 2020 (p. 6). They “make the university a marketplace where competition and the accumulation of capital dictate behaviour.” Had the budget model changed, we would be having different conversations today.

The University has not responded to frequent demands that it marginally increase (from .85% to 2.5%) the amount of investment income used for operating costs. Doing so would reduce the deficit by about $10 million, without drawing on existing reserves. In refusing to use the significant financial resources at its disposal, the University demonstrates that its priority is growing its capital reserves rather than sustaining the quality of the academic mission. It has not always been the case that a public university would choose not to use investment income to support its mandate.

1. In 2022, Huron Consulting Group was hired to undertake a review of the Queen’s budget model. In 2022, Huron Consulting Group submitted recommendations. The report has yet to be made public, despite being requested at Senate.

2. On Monday, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science hosted two town hall meetings, one for staff and one for faculty. It is not news to anyone in FAS that discussions about restructuring have been ongoing for months in the Dean’s office. The rumour and the assumption – given the choice of the University to project a large budget deficit, to assign the bulk of it to FAS, and to require a balanced budget in FAS by 2026-27 – is that this restructuring will involve lay-offs and changes to the organization of academic units. When staff and faculty ask department heads about these possibilities, they are told that the heads have been prohibited by the Dean’s office from sharing information about any developing plans. In such a climate it is not surprising that more than 200 people attended the town hall meetings desperate for information about what is going to happen to their jobs, their departments, and their programs.

At both meetings, people were looking for transparency. They asked what the plan is for FAS. They asked for details of the organizational changes to be made, numbers of lay-offs, dates, timelines, and the dollar amounts represented by various budget cutting strategies. They received none of the information they requested.

The Executive Director of Finance and Operations for the Faculty of Arts and Science, Cormac Evans, admitted that he was unaware that the deficit had been lowered from $48 million to $40.7 million, as announced in the financial report to the Board of Trustees that came out two weeks ago. At the town hall meeting for staff, he was vague about when the plan of action would go to the Dean. Maybe this week. Maybe in a few weeks. He also suggested that the next step would be to send the plan on to the Provost. There was no discussion of when – or if – there would be consultation with staff or faculty. It was also clear that there has not yet been meaningful consultation with department managers or USW, the union representing staff, in the preparation of whatever plan is forthcoming. In the meeting with faculty the narrative was different: “there’s recommendations coming up through the Budget Advisory Committee, in terms of what that structure could look like [a new administrative model], that will be delivered to the Dean this week. And then once we go through that process, we will open it up for consultation and for a discussion about how, then, if it is approved, how we can operationalize it.” There was no discussion of what the approval process would look like and how Faculty Board would be involved.

The only specific piece of information to come out of the meetings was the news that the Deficit Mitigation Fund (product of a 1.5% ‘tax’ on each of the Faculties next year) will contribute $16 million to FAS.

The meetings did little to quell the feeling that the still unnamed structural changes ahead will have significant negative impacts on the academic mission of FAS and on some people’s livelihoods.

3. FAS Faculty Board meets this Friday, 22 March at 3:30 pm in Mac-Corry B201 or via zoom. The agenda and zoom link are available here. Given the continuing lack of transparency in FAS it is urgent that faculty, staff, and students turn out to participate in this important mechanism of collegial governance.

4. Over the past few months, many people have been surprised by the lack of discussion of incentives to encourage faculty retirements as a means of mitigating the deficit. Today (March 20th) Deputy Provost Teri Shearer announced a voluntary retirement program for ‘eligible’ faculty, librarians and archivists.

5. Last week QCAA collaborated with concerned faculty and students at Concordia (who were in the midst of a week-long student strike against the tuition increases that are going to be imposed on out-of-province students next year) on a teach-in on University Governance 101. Peter McInnis, President of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) opened the teach-in with an overview of the threats to collegial governance and some strategies that have been used to counter them. Anna Sheftel and Stephen Yeager from Concordia talked about the organizational structure of universities, where and by whom decisions are made, and what some of the concerns are about governance and higher administration in the current context. Dan Cohen of Queen’s presented an overview of how to look critically at university budgets and financial statements. The basic message of the teach-in was to learn how our institutions work, pay attention, and participate in governance (yes – that means you should go to Faculty Board!). A recording of the teach-in been posted on the QCAA Youtube channel. You can find a terrific (short!) recap on the Queen’s Students vs Cuts Instagram page.

6. News of the 400% rent increase that is facing The Grad Club has been spreading.  Last Wednesday Astrid Hobill, Director of Operations at the Grad Club, was interviewed about the impact of the rent hike on CBC radio’s Ontario Morning. On Thursday Professor Chris Eckert of the Department of Biology spoke with Ontario Morning about the way the Grad Club contributes to the academic mission of the University, referring to it as our “academic living room.” You can see the related print story here. Additional coverage appeared in the Kingstonist  and the Queen’s Journal.

Professor Karen Dubinsky of Global Development Studies sent this note about the University’s restrictions on the Grad Club’s fundraising: “It is by now well known on campus that the Grad Club is in a precarious financial situation, exacerbated by the 400% rent increase demanded by Queen’s. An emergency fundraising campaign is underway. Less well known, perhaps, is that the Grad Club had secured agreement from the Advancement office to issue tax receipts for donations, as is the case with donations to other Queen’s cultural projects such as radio station CFRC. Just over 24 hours into the Grad Club’s emergency fundraising campaign, the Advancement office seems to have reversed itself, and took the Grad Club off their site as a possible recipient. They directed the funds (thousands of dollars) that had been collected during the initial hours of the campaign to the Office of Housing and Ancillary Services, which is the office responsible for the rent increase. I was one early donor. I immediately objected to the VP of Advancement, asked for my donation back, and sent it along to the Grad Club. Tax receipt or not, obviously the Grad Club is a rare and special place, worth supporting and making noise for. But questions remain: Why is the Grad Club not able to receive charitable status to help with their campaign to stay afloat? Who imagines it’s OK to divert donations destined for one place to another, without informing the donor or the original recipient? Who’s driving this bus?”

7. On Tuesday, QUFA’s Adjunct Advisory Committee and the Political Action and Communications Committee hosted a discussion on how austerity measures are affecting adjuncts. Dr. Nigmendra Narain, President of OCUFA and a continuing adjunct at Western, talked about issues facing adjuncts across the province and also about some of the recent significant successes achieved by OCUFA, including in the Ontario Court of Appeal (regarding Bill 124), in federal and (even to some extent) provincial bureaucracies, and at the bargaining table. Dr. Melissa Houghtaling, Chair of the Adjunct Advisory Committee reported on the results of a survey of adjuncts at Queen’s. The overall finding is that adjuncts are already feeling the effects of austerity measures. They are frustrated by the uncertainty around their course-loads and job security for next year. And they have concerns about the way that reduced course offerings will affect their rights and reappointment.

8. In early March, QCAA and QUFA’s Political Action and Communications Committee organized a teach-in on Consulting Firms, Benchmarking, and the Politics of Ratings in light of the arrival of the Nous Group consulting firm at Queen’s. The speakers included Dr. David McDonald of the Department of Global Development Studies, Dr. Norma Möllers of the Department of Sociology, and Dr. Michael Savage who is a Senior Research Analyst at OCUFA and a former employee of Nous. The recording of the teach-in is now available here.

9. A reminder that the Senior Administration Effectiveness Survey remains open for faculty and, especially, staff to share their views. The survey will be available until March 31st. It takes about 10 minutes to fill out and is completely anonymous.

10. Some further reading from the American Association of University Professors: Organizing Faculty through Budget Activism; and this super useful resource, Budget and Finance Rucksack: Tools and Resources for Tackling Austerity. The following appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education (you have to register to read it, but registration is free): The Rise of the Faculty Budget Activists.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list for this newsletter, you can write to me at mla1@queensu.ca. You can also sign up on the QCAA website.

You can also find earlier issues of this newsletter on the QCAA website.

You can find the brilliant Queensu Students vs Cuts on Instagram.

You can also find some interesting material if you browse the Queen’s community page on Reddit.

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