Fiscal Restraint Leads to Budget Cuts
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• Fiscal restraint leads to budget cuts By GAVIN WILSON As well, expectations of additional access clouded financial picture that is be funding to boost enrolment at UBC — at both the ing compared to the restraint era of undergraduate and graduate level—were dashed the 1980s has led to campus-wide when the provincial government retracted its A cuts in the 1992/93 budget. commitment to increase the number of funded More than $4.1 million has been trimmed student places, said Strangway. from the recurring budgets of university depart The last increase in access funding came in ments, offices and faculties — an average of 1.6 April, allowing an additional 200 undergraduate per cent. and 84 graduate positions. Some areas have On top of the pro- received deeper cuts, —————-^^—^^— •——^—^^^^— vincial operating including areduction "From an income point of view, grant, the university of more than eight per had an income of $47 cent in the operating this is the most difficult year we million from credit budget ofthe Faculty have faced in several years." course fees, $1 mil- of Agricultural Sci- ^^^^——^^—^^— __^_^_^^ lion from miscellane ences. ous fees, and $4.8 The cuts were made to help balance the $320- million from interest and other income. million general purpose operating budget ap More than 80 per cent of the university's proved by the university' s Board ofGovernors in expenses are from salaries and benefits. A further July. $6.3 million goes toward utilities, $6.4 million to "From an income point of view, this is the library acquisitions, $6.8 million to student aid, most difficult year we have faced in several and $35 million to other non-salary expenses. years," President David Strangway told board The recently negotiated salary increases for members. "It bears a great deal of similarity to the faculty added a one-time, retroactive $1.3 mil restraint years ofthe early 1980s." lion to the fiscal year cost of 1991/92. The aca The university's major source of income, the demic contingency fund was used to offset this provincial government's annual operating grant, expense and balance the budget. was up two per cent this year, for a total of $267 Salary settlements for most university em million. ployees in 1991/92 have now been reached, with But this follows a year in which inflation the exception of teaching assistants belonging to toppdW|(ff per cent, Strangway said. The univer the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local sity also faces many cost increases which are 2278 and day care workers. fixed, imposed by regulation, or stem from ap For 1992/93, salary adjustments are also out proved agreements. standing for management and professional staff, These increases are not recognized in the non-union technical staff and excluded staff. provincial government's operating grant and must The entire budget narrative will be published be absorbed this fiscal year, he said. and distributed this fall. Photo by Charles Ker Task force poised to Native carver Ken McNeildances under the watchfuleyes of a totem pole he helped create for the First Nations Longhouse, a project funded by UBC's World of Opportunity campaign. tackle global gridlock Native artists celebrated By CHARLES KER Task Force on Non-Motorized Transport, Feet first, pedal next, motor maybe. Pendakur isn't big on bumpers. Still, that doesn't as Longhouse posts unveiled "That would make a good bumper sticker," stop him from thinking up catchy phrases for the An enthusiastic audience of close to 100 chanting by First Nations graduate Ron Setty Pendakur's guest blurts out. Not surpris two primary alternatives to cars — cycling and Native students, elders, architects, administra Hamilton. ingly, the suggestion draws no response. walking. tors and faculty applauded the unveiling of four The two-hour ceremony, convened As recently appointed chair of the Global "People have an emotional love affair with carved house posts at UBC's First Nations on the construction site ofthe magnifi their motor vehicles in this country and the di Longhouse last month. cent 1 06-metre-long structure, paid trib vorce isn't going to come easy," he said. Two, 19-metre red cedar roof beams, ute to the artists who shaped the giant Pendakur, who has taught transportation is carved in the shape of a sea lion and killer cedar posts and beams which will frame sues in UBC's School of Community and Re whale by Haida artist Don Yeomans, were the Great Hall of the Longhouse. gional Planning for 26 years, hopes the 29-mem- Inside also hoisted into place amidst ceremonial See CEDAR on Page 2 ber task force helps hasten the divorce. The world's cities, he says, are running out of room to OLYMPIC GOLD: UBC Olympians move and clean air to breath largely because of an participating in the Barcelona games followed in the footsteps of 35 former overabundance of moving metal on roads. Computer porn ordered UBC students in bringing home Ol The task force will seek to change people's ympic medals in rowing. Page 2. attitudes towards daily travel by highlighting how other countries have successfully tackled HELPING HAND: More than 2,000 in deleted from UBC computers ternational students from close to 90 their inner-city traffic problems. countries were enrolled at UBC last Some examples: UBC President David Strangway has in access to, create, or store such pornographic year. Staff at International House, - In January, Amsterdam citizens voted by structed University Computing Services (UCS) material on university computing equipment, along with 400 volunteers, are ready referendum to prohibit cars from coming into the to delete all pornographic material from the UCS noting that some ofthe material sent to his office to greet the newest batch of arrivals. central business district without a special pass. Around & About, page 3. computer files. was not found in UCS computer files. - Singapore drivers, who currently shell out "Several colleagues have written to me Bernard Sheehan, associate vice-president, SAY WHAT?: Misleading metaphors, $ 100 a month for the privilege of driving down regarding the availability of pornographic Information and Computing Systems, is in the inflated language, weasel words and town, may soon have to pay by the kilometre material on UBCNet. I wish to assure you process of establishing a task force to examine gobbledygook are some of the tools under a new concept known as electronic road used by public speakers who abuse that neither I nor the university condone the appropriate uses of information technology at English with doublespeak. English pricing. such vulgar and reprehensible "news" UBC and make recommendations. Professor Philip Allingham uncov - In Bangalore, India (twice the size of metro items on computer network bulletin "Dr. Sheehan has been working on this issue with ers the worst. Forum, page 8. politan Vancouver), 25 per cent of trips are by boards," he said. the UCS staff for several weeks and has been collect bicycle, while an equal percentage of Finns in Strangway has asked all UBC units to ensure ing background information from other institutions See TODAY'S on Page 2 that university property is not being used to gain worldwide," Strangway said. 2 UBC REPORTS August 13.1992 Hi-tech brings life to limbs Letters to the Editor By GAVIN WILSON Picking up a telephone, flicking Negotiations 'a disaster' on a light switch, and turning the page of a book are daily acts that most of us take for granted. But for people The Editor: who have lost the use of their arms, I object to the self-congratulatory tone ofthe statements by the Faculty they are impossible tasks. Association President in the July 16 UBC Reports concerning the recent UBC researchers Douglas Romilly faculty salary settlement for 1991-1992. In fact the Faculty Association's and Cecil Hershler are developing an policy in negotiating that settlement was a disaster. The University made us orthotic device to help replace the an acceptable offer in 1991, but the Association, as always, wanted more, power and movement in the arms of regardless ofthe circumstances. As a result ofthe subsequent delay we have these people. been denied our rightful salary increase for an entire year, have lost all the Among those who could benefit interest that could have been earned from it, and have finally been awarded are those suffering from polio, spinal it in a year when a new income tax surtax is being imposed. Furthermore, cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, mus when an agreement was finally reached, the time for a 1992-93 increase was cular dystrophy, strokes, and upon us, with the University facing new fiscal restraints. The impact of a amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or zero increase for 92-93 was muffled by its being coupled with the long- Lou Gehrig's Disease). delayed increase for the previous year. If the Association had negotiated in "There is a whole class of people a realistic and timely fashion in 1991 that decision would have been long who have lost mobility and muscle behind us, and we could have faced the new situation in its own terms. In function in their limbs but they can effect, the Association played into the administration's hands. still feel texture and temperature," said Daniel L. Overmyer Romilly, an assistant professor in the Asian Studies Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. "We're trying to build a device that would give them back their mobility." Romilly and Hershler, a clinical associate professor in the School of Rehabilitation Medicine, are in the UBC athletes strike early stages of a three-year project to develop prototypes for an improved orthotic device.