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Uncertainty Surrounds MTCU Budget Funding
SCUP, Summerlee recommend delaying preliminary budget presentation to B of G
The Senate Committee on University Planning (SCUP) was expected to present a recommendation to Senate Tuesday on the timeline for the University's 2007/2008 Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) budget and tuition discussions.
In a preliminary report, SCUP said there is significant uncertainty around information both on the 2006/2007 MTCU operating grants and for the upcoming budget year.
At this stage, it appears that the provincial government is not rolling a number of its smaller grant envelopes into base funding, and that monies allocated for quality improvements are being converted to deal with accessibility, but this has not been confirmed, the report says. Details on actual revenue for 2006/07 are therefore unclear.
There is also uncertainty about the 2007/08 budget allocation, which will probably not be resolved until the province's financial year-end March 31. As a result, there will be no opportunity to prepare the preliminary MTCU budget in its usual format for the Board of Governors meeting scheduled for April 18.
As a result, SCUP and president Alastair Summerlee are recommending delaying the preliminary MTCU budget presentation to the June 7 B of G meeting.
Summerlee adds, however, that it's customary to provide an opportunity for discussion about tuition fees while most students are still on campus. He and SCUP are suggesting that tuition proposals be presented in the context of provisional budget assumptions at B of G's April 18 meeting.
The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs budget will still be presented to the board in April because the revenue and expenditure information for that budget is much clearer, says SCUP. The University's ancillary budgets will also be presented at that time.