Facing financial woes, Humber Polytechnic offers staff voluntary exit packages
CBC
Staff at Humber Polytechnic have been offered a voluntary exit package this week, as the college says its facing "significant" fiscal challenges and a "growing strain” on its budget.
“While we are taking every step to minimize impact on our people, the reality is that workforce reductions may be required,” said Humber Polytechnic president Ann Marie Vaughan in a letter to staff on Monday.
The news comes just weeks after the province announced a $6.4-billion funding model over the next four years for universities and colleges — one that controversially includes changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) grant structure and lifts the tuition freeze.
While Vaughan thanked the province for that recent funding, she said the college is still struggling to navigate financial issues stemming from the cap on international students, rising operational costs and years of limited funding. That message was echoed in an emailed statement by Humber Polytechnic on Wednesday.
Faculty at the college are feeling uncertain about if they should take the offer or risk possibly being laid off in the near future, said Miloš Vasić, Humber faculty union president.
He said the school has yet to share how much they want to “shred payroll” and how severe a possible layoff could be.
“Because there's so much uncertainty, there is no guarantee that [a person] taking a package will save someone else's job,” he said. “It's that uncertainty that makes me and everyone uncomfortable.”
It’s easy for school administrators and the province to blame college financial issues on the federal government and its restriction of international student permits, he said. But in reality, Vasić says the issue all comes down to a lack of sector-wide funding by the province.
“The provincial government by design has been nickel and diming colleges and universities. They can't do that anymore,” he said. “More spotlight needs to be given in terms of the chronic underfunding that is happening.”
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