Wakeham slams Liberals for fumbling MUN's financial struggles

The Progressive Conservative leader is slamming Newfoundland and Labrador's Liberal government for what he calls a failure to support Memorial University in an unfolding fiscal crisis.

"When I think about education, I don't think about it as a cost. I think about it as an investment," Tony Wakeham told CBC Radio's On the Go.

MUN president Neil Bose said late last week the university would curb hiring professors, researchers and other staff to deal with a loss of more than $9.5 million in tuition fees. Enrolment had dropped by 5.4 cent in the fall semester, compared to the fall of 2023.

Bose, whose university cannot by law run a deficit, said tuition fees would not be immediately increased.

Wakeham said the provincial government has a responsibility to invest in the university and meet with students and faculty to hear their concerns.

"We cannot balance the books of the university on the backs of the students," he said. 

Wakeham said no one should be surprised by the problems the university now finds itself in, pointing out the Liberal government has cut $68.4 million in university funding since 2021, when a long-running tuition fee freeze was lifted. 

"That has had an immediate impact on us. And we've now seen it come to fruition, where the university finds itself in the position with the declining enrolment and needing to take further action," Wakeham said. 

He said it looks as if the government has forgotten that MUN was founded to educate the people of the province as well as students from all over the world.

While there is a need to respect the university's autonomy, Wakeham said the auditor general recently examined MUN's books and identified inefficiencies.

"We need those recommendations of the auditor general. We need an update on the implementation of those recommendations and where they are at this particular point in time — that needs to be done," he said.

There are problems at the university's administration and infrastructure level, which Wakeham said need a complete review.

"We ought to be sitting down with the people that are interested in keeping MUN and keeping the reputation that it had."

CBC News asked for an interview with Education Minister Krista Lynn Howell, which was refused. Instead, her office sent a statement which noted the government earmarked almost $400 million in the last budget for MUN.