http://search.proquest.com/docview/3457 ... ntid=14846
UVic faces funding crunch: Increase in students and freeze on tuition puts quality at risk, administrators warn: [Final Edition]
Danard, Susan. Times - Colonist; Victoria, B.C. [Victoria, B.C]27 Jan 2000: C1 / FRONT.Students' quality of education at the University of Victoria is in danger due to a funding shortfall, warn UVic administrators.
The university has had to make cuts to departments for six years in a row and could face more cuts this spring. The provincial government's policy of increasing student spaces at universities while freezing tuition has led to a funding crunch, said Penny Codding, vice-president academic and provost.
"We're beginning to feel that the quality of what we do here is in danger," she said.
While the B.C. government has increased access to post-secondary education, "we're now at a point where we might find students asking `access to what?"'
Since 1993-94, UVic enrollment has increased by close to 17 per cent to about 13,900 full-time equivalent students.
When the enrollment growth and inflation are factored in, the university has had to make due with a revenue decrease of $1,110 per student -- the equivalent of a 14-per-cent cut.
The shortfall has led to larger class sizes, wait lists for some courses, aging equipment and fewer library resources, Codding said. UVic's library, for example, cancelled 150 journal subscriptions last year.
In social sciences, students face delays in graduating because they can't get into required courses, said John Schofield, dean of social sciences.
The engineering faculty, which has seen an extraordinary enrollment increase of 40 per cent in the past five years, has had to cut laboratory time for students. Harried professors have less time for research and less time to help students.
"We're worried if there are any more budget cuts, the quality is really going to slip.... I don't think (the students) get as much attention as individuals as they did five years ago," said Michael Miller, dean of engineering. "My assessment is we're right at the edge."
Ensuring more students get a university or college education has been a major commitment by the NDP, which has frozen tuition since 1996. B.C. has the second lowest tuition fees in Canada, after Quebec.
And despite cuts in federal transfers for post-secondary education, B.C. has increased funding to universities and colleges by nearly $300 million over the last eight years.
But UVic administrators say much of that funding increase has gone toward creating new student spaces -- 16,000 additional spaces since 1996 -- and funding for new universities, including the Technical University of B.C. and Royal Roads University.
UVic stops short of demanding the province lift its tuition freeze, but says if the freeze stays, the university will need a larger provincial operating grant.
"Whether or not there is a tuition freeze in the province of British Columbia is a matter of public policy, which the government has to decide," Codding said. "We're saying to provide a high quality of education in the province of British Columbia, we need the same resources that other universities in the country have."
In a recent report submitted to the province, the University Presidents' Council, which represents B.C.'s six universities, argues that when compared with 16 other Canadian universities, B.C. universities have a shortfall of 440 per student --- a total of 54 million.
The university presidents want a minimum five-per-cent increase in their operating grant.
Andrew Petter, a former UVic law professor, now the minister of advanced education, said he shares concern about education quality.
Petter is staying mum on whether universities will have to increase student spaces again this year, but is promising more overall funding for post-secondary education in the upcoming provincial budget. Lifting the tuition freeze, however, is not something the government is "actively considering.
"I think it's crazy for us to be contemplating making education more expensive and less accessible at the very time post-secondary education is becoming more basic," Petter said.
If B.C. universities feel they are under-funded compared with universities elsewhere, it's because federal cuts have led to the balkanization of the country with Alberta and Ontario opting for more elitist systems that charge prohibitive tuition, Petter said.
"If we could get the federal government to restore the funding that they took out of the system, we would not have to make those invidious choices between excellence on the one hand and access on the other," Petter added.
"Because my personal belief is a system cannot claim to be excellent if it doesn't provide opportunities for middle and lower income kids."
Illustration
- gorman3.jpg (110.11 KiB) Viewed 4203 times
(courtesy of uvic library)
Photo: Ray Smith, Times Colonist / Bill Gorman instructs a computer science course in the Engineering Lab Wing at UVic. Administrators say government policies of freezing tuition and increasing enrollment are squeezing system. ;
https://web.archive.org/web/20060410191 ... bgorman/c/
C for Java programmers
who: Bill Gorman
when: 2nd or 3rd week of term
where: ELW B215 (or B220)
duration: 2-3 hours
client: has Java needs introduction to c
scope: c basics, debugging, pointer manipulation
exercises: by example.
future: Emphasis on separate compilation for unit testing purposes, helps Java programmers developer c modules that imitate Java classes.
limitations: should not be used to allow first assignments in second year core courses to assume the language is well known.
around april 2009
Inventing the future for 25 years.
- gorman1.jpg (41.4 KiB) Viewed 4224 times
(courtesy of uvic engineering)
The University of Victoria's Faculty of Engineering celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. To mark this milestone, faculty, alumni, staff and students have agreed to share their memories and experiences.
In this third part of the series, Bill Gorman describes his career as a lab instructor and senior consultant in the Department of Computer Science.I'm from Ontario originally. I did a degree in physical geography and another in education before getting a job in the mining industry in northern Ontario. After that, I decided to go to school for computer programming.
I moved out west in the early eighties. Soon after, somebody working at UVic computer science told me they needed someone with IBM experience. They needed them to do lab instruction, and they needed them quick. This was the second week in January --- the term had already started.
I was given five bullet points on Friday afternoon for a lab to start teaching on Monday --- I basically created the whole course over a weekend. It was fun! I really got to use my skills.
When I started, computer science was part of the math department, In 1988, they joined the Faculty of Engineering. We got our own facilities --- engineering built a better computer system for us than we had before. And I don't think engineering could have succeeded here without us --- electrical and computer engineering essentially have to be integrated with computer science. The move just made a lot of sense.
When we first came over, and for a long time, the challenge was just sheer size. We were busting at the seams, and we were a small department. After the dot com crash, though, there were no jobs for a while. People have this direct association between work and wealth and stability in their lives. And that association was not present in engineering and computer science during that particular time. The challenge then was to get enrollment back.
Students are coming back to us now. The demand for technology is through the roof. The job prospects now for computer science students are endless --- health care, the environment, entertainment --- I think the harder question is what field doesn't have prospects for computer scientists. Computer science is a basic science, and you'll find it everywhere.
We do a lot of outreach. There are faculty members who visit the high schools. Students come for tours in every break. We have an occasional open house too. Summertime, we offer a lot of support to Science Venture. We also had a little computer museum for a while, with time stamps, disk drives that were heavier than motorcycle motors, stuff like that!
Over the years we've grown a lot. I think we're double, the size now that we were when we started. Another success is our interdisciplinary programs --- pairing a computer science degree with physics or math or health care or geography is just a no-brainer. And pairing it with things like music or visual arts is really interesting! I think students who have done these combined programs will have really expanded prospects for, jobs or grad school.
And I think I've contributed to the success by being approachable and friendly. I've always got an open door, I don't care if you're an A student or a B student, I'm here to help you through.
I obviously thrive on people contact, I just enjoy it --- though to be honest, I wouldn't have admitted that 20 years ago. So that's one big change that has happened here over the years!
To learn more about UVic's Faculty of Engineering's 25th anniversary, visit www.engr.uvic.ca/25
TIMES COLONIST
Your island. Your Newspaper
artist rendering
- gorman2.jpg (65.46 KiB) Viewed 4224 times
(by jongrong wang)
words from students, teaching assistants, course instructors and colleagues
"Thanks very much for his help during my first TA job at UVic. He is nice, accommodating and humorous."
"I will never forget the help from Bill in the consultant office in ECS. Rest in peace."
"He has a kind heart and great sense of humor, which made uvic feel like home on my first days at school. May he rest in peace."
"They were very good colleagues. I miss Bill."
"I will miss Bill terribly. I’ve had a difficult time keeping back the tears."
"Bill was incredibly helpful to me, as well as to all the students."
"The Consultants’ Office was around in the 1970s. It may not have been started by Bill. but it had his character all over it. He always believed that when someone comes to you for help, you stay with them until their problem is solved."
"I loved Bill. He always had a friendly smile and a warm hello for me."