Camosun’s budget increases tuition, axes programs

Camosun’s new budget:
• 2% increase in tuition
• 46 jobs potentially cut
• 1 radio station shut down
• 3 programs cut or suspended

Between the two percent increase in tuition, cutting as many as 46 staff and faculty, the shutting down of the college’s radio station and the cuts or suspensions of three programs, Camosun’s recently announced budget will have long- lasting effects on students and staff at the college.

Madeline Keller-MacLeod, Camosun College Student Society’s (CCSS) Lansdowne external affairs executive, says the increase in tuition costs could result in students unable to afford education.

“We’re committed to making education a right,” says Keller-MacLeod, “and with every tuition fee increase, education is becoming more of a privilege.”

Camosun College faces an initial deficit of $2.5 million, due both to the lack of an increase in provincial funding (which has been flat since 2010 when it was cut by 75 percent) and lower-than-anticipated non-governmental revenue generation.

Keller-MacLeod believes that the college is doing what it can to make sure students are impacted as little as possible, and the problem lies with the provincial government.

“The government has given postsecondary institutions a mandate to have a balanced budget every year and they have to try to make it not affect students,” she says, “and that’s impossible.”

Joan Yates, executive director, communications and advancement at Camosun, emphasizes how hard the college is trying to avoid having students impacted by the cuts.

“It would be great if we didn’t have to increase tuition,” says Yates, “but the reality is that our costs have gone up proportionately more than two percent.”

The budget calls for the cuts of 6.6 administration positions, 22.5 support staff positions, and 17 Camosun College Faculty Association positions, which is 46 people on paper, but Yates believes the actual number will be lower.

“Based on what has happened in the past in this organization—while that’s a huge number, no question—with actual people, it comes way down,” says Yates. “We will have people absolutely who are impacted, but the [actual] number is less than half of that overall position.”

Students interested in media have been hit particularly hard by the cuts. CKMO, Camosun’s radio station, is being shut down and the Applied Communication Program (ACP) is being suspended, despite high graduate employment rates.

“Because we’re not integrated with any other programs, they can cut us and no other programs are affected directly,” says ACP instructor Kim O’Hare. “If you cut a biology teacher you affect the nursing program and the environmental program and so on. We’re a stand-alone program. It’s less complicated; the effects of suspending ACP are contained.”

ACP being suspended will leave a void in communications education on Vancouver Island.

“I don’t think you can walk into a media outlet on the island without running into an ACP person,” says O’Hare. “And that’s done. It’s over now. Like everything else, we’ll be relying on the mainland to provide our communications now.”

Apart from CKMO being shut down and the Applied Communication Program being suspended, the 2012–13 Camosun College budget is hitting the college hard.

Here are some other affected programs and services:
• In Student Services, the Learning Skills program will be cut. Other options for delivering some elements of this service are being considered. In addition, a re-organization of Student Services will result in reductions.
• Computing Science as a stand-alone program will be cut. Computing classes offered to other programs will continue.
• The English Language Development program will be reduced.
• The Network Electronics program will be suspended.
• 6.6 management positions will be cut, including associate deans.
• Information Technology will have positions removed in both management and support staff.
• Continuing Education/Contract Training areas that operate below cost recovery will be suspended.
• Camosun International will lose positions due to changes in its business model.
• Non-government funded areas, such as co-op and ancillary services, will also lose positions.
• Reductions will also be made in other departments of the college.