Re: UVic president inherits tough budget (News, Sept. 13)
Making four percent cuts in UVic’s budget sounds like a bureaucratic approach that will achieve little while doing injustice to excellent people there.
Small reductions to be more efficient and avoid doing what isn’t necessary should have already been made by each department and cell. As a political organization, UVic will likely decide on the basis of pandering, not performance.
B.C.’s universities have traditionally been slow to adapt to needs, again they are out of step on graduating teachers.
Private educational companies can change more quickly, shifting some staff to courses of increasing demand and eliminating other courses.
UVic is in somewhat of an awkward position as the main university on an island, thus is under pressure to have more faculties than they might otherwise justify.
At the same time, however, I point to duplication – look at SFU and UBC for much of that, which often occurs in a fad field such as climate science.
A key problem is indirect funding of the ivory tower approach through force of taxation, rather than the values-based decision-making by each individual or benefactor out of their own pocket.
Keith Sketchley
Saanich
