Thursday, October 15th 2009

By selma al-samarrai

McMaster President Peter George established the President’s Advisory Committee on the Impact of the Current Economic Situation on Jan. 2009. The reason for the creation of the committee is to develop strategies that will create and maintain long-term sustainability for the University.

The committee members include individuals from the Board of Governors, the McMaster University Faculty Association, the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Faculty of Humanities, DeGroote School of Business, CUPE 3906, the McMaster Student Union, the Faculty of Social Sciences, McMaster Association of Part-time students, the Faculty of Science, Graduate Students Association, CAW Local 555 and the Management group.

The PACICE committee created an interim report on June 12, 2009 and the report was released on Oct. 2, 2009. Following the release of the interim report, a town hall meeting was held at the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery on Oct. 13, which was open to the general public. The meeting was arranged for the purpose of presenting the INTERIM report and gathering feedback. The expectation is that the committee would then finalize the report and present its best recommendations on strategic options for the university.

Scheduled from 2.30 p.m. to 4 p.m. the meeting began with George introducing the PACICE and speaking of the recent economic turbulence and the immediate impact it has had on pension plans. He then introduced David Lazzarato, the chair of PACICES and the presenter for the event. George explained that none of the Vice-Presidents were invited, in order to create the appropriate environment for discussion, and then proceeded to leave.

The items in the interim report, some of which were discussed at the meeting, include McMaster’s current financial condition and some of the steps the university has taken to improve it. This includes the McMaster Units being asked to manage inflationary costs, provincial government funding, problems with government research grants, the University’s estimated potential deficits for the 2010-2013 period, the existing pension plans and benefits, the 29 million dollars that are yet to be raised for capital projects that the school has already approved, and the consistently depleting Available Expendable Resources of the University.

A few of the recent initiatives and recommendations from the University are establishing an annual government and external relations strategy to be approved by the Board of Governors, inform the provincial and federal governments of any actions carried by the University, increase communication with major stakeholders, create greater transparency of the University’s finances, to eliminate the estimated deficits of the three upcoming years, the redesign of the current pension benefit, to implement a process that ensures hiring is for the sole purpose of explicit institutional priorities, among several others.

The presentation was followed by a discussion period for all those present where several questions, criticisms and opinions were delivered to Lazzarato regarding some of the University’s initiatives in the interim report.

The full interim report is available on the Daily News.

Tags: Economy, PACICES, Peter George