The University of Saskatchewan is not falling apart, but its infrastructure funding is insufficient.

A Jan. 22 StarPhoenix article stated that the province cut the university’s capital grant by $7.9 million or 40 per cent. However, the university’s architect and facilities management division associate vice-president, Colin Tennant, who was interviewed for that article, said this inaccurately implies that the government has done nothing to repair campus.

“Part of what seemed to be implicit in the article on Saturday was that the government hasn’t really done its part,” said Tennant. “They’ve actually been really astute to responding to our needs. They’ve been as generous as they possibly can be and I’m quite impressed with the way the current government understands the issues.

“For example, the province recognized last year that we needed to replace an aging boiler feed water system within the university’s heating plant and they provided the cash for that.”

He also added that it is difficult for the provincial government to balance funding between cities, towns and institutions.

“It’s hard to determine who should get what kind of money. It is a problem of a magnitude that is pretty daunting — not just here, but in every institution.

“Over the last couple of months we have been working with three other institutions — University of Alberta, University of Calgary and University of British Columbia. Our construction costs tend to be about the same,” he added.

“We won’t be dealing with all of our deferred maintenance, but our attempt is to chip away at that $617 million [of required repairs] in every possible way that we can.”

To do this, he says that the university tries to balance between starting new projects while keeping up with maintenance.

“With new capital projects we also try to clean up the deferred maintenance. I think Place Riel is a great example of that,” he said. “We’re not just building new and ignoring the old.”

Of course, Place Riel is a University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union project and is partly funded by the undergraduate infrastructure fee.

According to Tennant, the university cannot rely solely on the infrastructure fee and the federal and provincial government to fund its projects and repairs.

“We can’t continue with the funding strategy we have in place.”

According to USSU vice president operations and finance Scott Hitchings, the infrastructure fee is expected to rise five per cent next year, assuming council votes in favour of the proposal.

Since 2006, the infrastructure fee has increased 500 per cent and it seems unfair to significantly burden current students with the university’s repair debts.

The university has considered corporate sponsorship, but acknowledges it would be difficult to balance receiving funds and remaining autonomous.

“Ethical issues are very carefully scrutinized by senior administration,” said Tennant.

“The university doesn’t pursue any opportunity without very thoroughly investigating the implications of accepting support.”

– –
image: Pete Yee