Provincial government pressed to provide U of R with emergency funding

The Saskatchewan government is being pressed to provide the University of Regina (U of R) with emergency funding. Declining student enrolment and inflationary pressures have left the campus with a $15 million revenue shortfall.

“I think that they need to be coming forward with emergency funding for the University of Regina, specifically because of the situation that the institution has found itself in,” said NDP MLA Jennifer Bowes.

Professors say their departments have been instructed to find ways to cut.

“Individual faculty units at the University of Regina have been given a mandate from the upper administration that they are to find between three and seven per cent in their budgets as a cut,” said Britt Hall, president of the University of Regina Faculty Association.

The continuing education minister met with the university president this week.

“There’s some issues at the University of Regina but we’re confident that the university through its president and its leadership team are going to meet the challenges, their financial challenges,” said Gordon Wyant, minister of advanced education.

U of R Students are concerned they will be left with fewer options.

“Now with the budget cuts, a lot of teachers don’t teach the classes that I want anymore because they are more prioritizing the lower level classes,” said student Kaitlyn Stadnyk.

Other say cuts could impact plans for post graduate studies.

“I’ve been looking at masters and there’s not many masters offered that I’m interested in taking in here so I might have to look to go outside of the province,” said student Aiden McMartin.

The government isn’t rushing in with extra dollars. It’s waiting for the university to finalize a budget and it will then assess the situation.