“The Board of Governors is responsible for the University's overall governance and management. In practical terms, the Board makes the financial decisions and implements the policies and procedures that the University needs to operate efficiently”.
In particular, the Board has several standing committees, including the Finance and Treasury Committee. It “has budgetary and financial oversight responsibilities for the University as well as an oversight responsibility for the Long Term Portfolio, its Treasury investments, and its liability structure”.
Given the current financial situation of the University of Ottawa, we can expect a new wave of budget cuts and so-called “optimization of resources and services”. The Deans and Chairs of departments have been asked to do budget cuts in the past few years. As a Chair, I was asked to cut 5% of my budget, even though 99% of the budget is allocated to APTPUO-hiring or TA support. The simple math tells us that we need to cut the latter items, even though the number of students increased significantly in the past few years. As the University community we can also see what the “optimization of resources” means. The disastrous roll-out of Workday is the tip of the iceberg.
As such, as a researcher and teacher, I certainly worry that the next round of budget cuts and “optimization of resources” may significantly affect teaching, students’ experience and ability to conduct research to our fullest potential. As such, I believe, it is fundamental that the Finance and Treasury Committee includes members of the academic staff. Yet, at this moment, there is no representative of the academic staff on the Committee.
I believe I have the expertise to review annual budgets, evaluate the University’s periodical financial forecasts and monitor year-to-date spending (time series forecasting is one of my research subjects). Furthermore, if elected, I will evaluate and question “optimization of resources” decisions. I believe I have a significant experience as a teacher, researcher and administrator to do so.