The Nova Scotia
College of Art and Design (NSCAD) approved budgetary measures on July 3,
to cut $1.2M from the university’s deficit by introducing student fees,
eliminating under-enrolled classes, and decreasing labour costs.
These spending
reductions are part of a plan submitted by the troubled fine arts school on Mar
29 to get NSCAD on the path towards financial stability, NSCAD’s President
David B. Smith said in a press release on Apr 5, 2012.
According to
NSCAD’s “Framework for Sustainability,” the school intends on balancing the
budget by cutting jobs, mostly part-time positions, through attrition.
Attrition is the gradual reduction of employees through retirement
As for new
student fees, NSCAD plans to increase tuition by 3% as well as add an
adjustment fee of $82.50 a term for students taking five courses in the school
year. Students who wish to take six courses will soon have to pay an Override
Fee of $600 per term. The framework stated that a $45 facility fee and a $50
technology renewal fee will also be added to tuition for the upcoming school
year.
Currently, NSCAD
does not charge students for graduating. However, in order to generate revenue
of approximately $11,600, students graduating from the 2012-2013 class and
onwards will have to pay a $50 fee.
Despite the new
fees, NSCAD’s tuition for the 2012-2013 school year is below the provincial
average, resting at $6,000 per year.
Kevin Finch,
Communications Advisor for the Department of Education and Labour in Nova
Scotia, said NSCAD’s financial troubles started 5 years ago, “after the
province agreed to invest $4.7 million to move the university from leased
premises to a new port campuses” in order to handle enrollment growth.
One of these
campuses is the Waterfront Campus which required $8.9 million from the government
to house NSCAD’s sculpture, design, ceramics, and foundation programs, said a
report issued by the Nova Scotia government in December 2011.
However,
enrollment did not increase as expected and “anticipated federal funding did
not arrive, leaving NSCAD in a financial crunch from which it has not
recovered,” Finch said.
According to the
2011 report, NSCAD’s current debt is projected to be $19 million.
The 2011 report
also stated that NSCAD relies on funding provided by the Nova Scotia government
more than any other school in the province. “The total operating and facilities
grants from the province were approximately $11 million or 60 per cent of
NSCAD’s total revenue,” the report said. The average for universities in Nova
Scotia is around 30 per cent.
Without the
cost-saving measures introduced in NSCAD’s Framework for Sustainability,
NSCAD’s deficit, which currently sits at $2.4 million, could balloon to $4
million by 2013.
Sarah Trower and
Kelly Zwicker, President and VP Internal for the Student Union at NSCAD, said
that the budget cuts are the result of a “serious lack of transparency in
regards to the distribution of money.”
According to
Trower and Zwicker, the Student Union of the Nova Scotia College of Art and
Design (SUNSCAD), recently sent letters to the NSCAD Board of Governance and
the Minister of Labour and Advanced Education as a response to the new fees.
Trower and
Zwicker said the budget contravenes a Memorandum of Understanding which states
that students must be informed of proposed ancillary fees 4 weeks in advance.
“We were consulted only a week and a half before the fees were passed,” Trower
and Zwicker said.
NSCAD’s financial
woes cast a dark shroud on its 125th
anniversary. Nonetheless, the Nova Scotia government remains optimistic in
securing NSCAD’s future.
“Nova Scotia has a rich cultural
heritage and NSCAD’s roots go back 125 years,” Finch said. “We are
committed to having a fine arts education in this province.”