Last week, both the Senate and the Board of Governors of Trent University met to discuss the current conditions of the university and possible projects for the future.

The Board of Governors approved a site behind Otonabee College for the DNA Cluster project. There was concern expressed by student representatives upon approval of a site for a business partnership prior to having a business plan. Additional apprehension was vocalized at the meeting, as the approval for the site from the Trent Nature Areas Society was gained in the summer at a meeting without quorum. The President stressed that approval of the site will not trap Trent University into commitment of the DNA Cluster and that it will simply allow for further exploration of this partnership opportunity. The only objections of the approval came from two of the three student representatives.

Budget reductions for Trent were approved at the Board of Governors meeting as well. With approximately 2000 new students, Trent is falling slightly short of its anticipated numbers and revenue. The cuts will be mainly felt by staffing plans, with a non-hiring period in effect. Tenure-track hiring will be halted for an unspecified period of time. Reductions will not affect respective departments. The budget cuts will make up for approximately two million dollars that the university failed to receive due to lower student enrollment this year. Garth Browncombe from the finance department in conversation with Arthur noted that the budget had been expanded by approximately ten percent this year so the cuts will be a regression on this year's expansion and will not represent a cut on last year's levels.

The university also expressed some concern over the initiative to include universities in the freedom of information act. President Patterson believes that six areas should not be subject to the freedom of information act. These include student's examinations, course evaluations, faculty peer reviews among others.

The Board discussed the evolution of the nature of Trent University, acknowledging the growing numbers of graduate students. As a predominately undergraduate school, this is a significant and, according to the President, favourable shift that should be nurtured in order to allow Trent to remain competitive with other Canadian Universities.

Return to DNA Cluster Newsroom