Accountability before additional funding: First, open the books
University administrators always plead for more money saying they are strapped and have exhausted institutional flexibility with existing funding. Trent University administrators, past and present, are no exception. We say show us your books first. Demonstrate transparency and accountability and that you have managed responsibly and without waste or mismanagement.
Trent professor James Neufeld submitted an article to the local paper with an impassioned plea for more money. He tells us that Trent has been managing what few dollars it has effectively, squeezing every bit of efficiency it can out of those dollars. Unfortunately he neglected to include a single verifiable fact to validate his assertions of good management on the part of Trent's administrators.
This is not to suggest that Prof. Neufeld is disingenuous in his sentiments. But in the absence of Freedom of Information legislation compelling university administrators to operate transparently and accountably, there is no means to verify Neufeld's sentiments. Perhaps this letter to the Editor sums up the predicament most succinctly;Letter to The Editor
Peterborough Examiner - March 16, 2005, page A4
Re: "Universities at the edge", March 14, 2004, pA4
With all due respect to James Neufeld's long experience as a university administrator, Trent University's financial books are closed to the public. His impassioned plea for more money to flow to Trent is sincere and heartfelt, but it is naive without the substance of verifiable need and accountability.
I am in favour of post-secondary education being sufficiently funded to meet the needs of today's students without burdening them and their families with debt.
Where I depart from Mr. Neufeld is that I appeal to Jeff Leal and his government to bring transparency and accountability to our Ontario by implementing the Rae review's recommendation that provincial Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation "be extended in its application to all institutions" before new funding is granted.
For the sake of Peterborough's citizens and its university's prosperous future, FOI legislation must be applied to universities. It is the only means by which the public might verify university administrators' claims to have operated responsibly, without waste or mismanagement, and to have exhausted institutional flexibility to effectively manage under current funding.
Ken Brown
Bolivar Street
OurTrent Editor's note: We have included the original letter as was sent to the Examiner. The published letter was altered slightly by the Examiner.
| SOUND OFF Universities at the edge Peterborough Examiner, March 14, 2005 I would like to offer an individual, and personal, view on the need for a significant investment of new funds for Ontario's university system, as advocated in the recent report to the provincial government prepared by Mr. Bob Rae. In Basing my observation on that variety and length of service, I have one consistent, overriding message to deliver to the provincial government: the crisis facing Ontario's universities, and Trent University in particular, is real, and Trent has, over the past 30 years, done everything in its power to attempt to delay that crisis through internal means. The problem is underfunding, not inefficient use of resources, and only a serious re-investment in education by the Province of Ontario will address this problem. I was struck by some comments made recently by the acting president of the University of Toronto in an address to the Canadian Club of Toronto. He cites a 2001 provincial task force, informed by work from Pricewaterhouse Coopers. The report states that: "Individual universities had found essentially all the efficiencies they could to compensate for declining provincial funding. While noting that some efficiencies could by gained through system-wide co-operation in areas such as purchasing and information technology, the Task Force concluded that, and I quote, 'any flexibility for individual institutions to continue compensating for declining revenues is minimal.' " As an administrator at Trent, I can testify personally that my entire career has been governed by attempts to find efficiencies and savings within our small budgets in order to compensate for provincial underfunding. First at the college level, then at the university level, and now at the departmental level, my primary energies have been devoted, not to developing and implementing the best possible programs for our students, but to salvaging the absolute essentials from the destructive waves of successive budget cutbacks. In the process, I believe that Trent has learned a great deal about how to preserve essentials and how to adapt to change. This is useful experience, which will make the institution stronger and more flexible as it faces the future. But without substantial increased government funding, there will be no future to face. There is nothing inessential left to cut. The quality of the student experience itself is now being affected, in rising class sizes and diminishing access to teaching staff, two of the characteristics on which Trent founded its reputation as a small, liberal arts and science university. If the problem is acute at a mammoth institution like the University of Toronto, then it defies comprehension at a small one like Trent, whose budget, in relative terms, is so minute that it provides absolutely no flexibility for budgetary re allocation, or so-called "creative solutions to underfunding." We have been as creative as we can, and we now face the possibility of radical amputation. The crisis identified in the Rae report is real. The proposed reinvestment in post-secondary education is crucial in order to stave off irreversible damage to the system as a whole and to individual universities like Trent. Trent University, which has pioneered the virtues and benefits of a small- scale approach to university education, is feeling the effects of the crisis in an exaggerated form, precisely because of those pioneering values. I appeal to Jeff Leal, as my member of the provincial legislature and as parliamentary assistant to the minister of training, colleges and universities, to support the Rae review's recommendations, for the sake of Peterborough's citizens and its university. James Neufeld has been teaching at Trent University since 1972. Sound Off is a forum for readers to express their views. The ideal length is 500 words or fewer.
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a long career at Trent University, I have taught continuously in the classroom while simultaneously holding a number of administrative positions. I have been principal of Catharine Parr Traill College from 1982-1987, vice-president, university services, from 1990-1995, and am currently completing a term as chair of the department of English literature (2000-2005). I have observed our university over a long period of time, and from a number of different perspectives.