Dear Mr. Hughes,
Congratulations on your recent appointment as Deputy Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills.
I am the President of the Langara Faculty Association. In writing to you today, I request on behalf of the Langara Board of Directors, a meeting to discuss several issues. First and most pressing is the policy around the use of surplus funds during the current enrolment and funding crisis. As we understand it, special purpose teaching universities, such as Kwantlen University, have been allowed to access surplus funds throughout this period. However, when Langara recently asked to access the same funds, the request was denied on the basis that they are a college. We are puzzled by this answer given that colleges and special-purpose teaching universities are only minimally differentiated under the College and Institute Act. What, therefore, were the criteria used to deny Langara’s request?
The other issue we would like to speak with you about is reinstating the postponed funding formula review process for post-secondary institutions. As we understand it, the review was shut down last year without any rationale or explanation. Langara College is one of the lowest-funded colleges in BC and, as such, was forced to rely on international students, which resulted in the college having over $119 million in reserve. Still, they are not allowed to access these funds to mitigate faculty layoffs. Our faculty are demanding an answer to policy dissonance.
We strongly support the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC (FPSE) position statement dated November 14, 2024, and we call on the Minister to take urgent actions to save jobs and support the survival of colleges in BC.
We, the Langara Faculty Association, fully support the following statement released by FPSE:
“This crisis is a direct result of the province’s lack of planning and general neglect with respect to our sector. Faculty associations across the province are being summoned to meetings and briefed on job losses and program cuts. These cuts will gut the quality of post-secondary education in BC and undermine access to education across the province unless the government takes decisive action”.
Five-Point Action Plan
We are calling on the provincial government to adopt a five-point action plan:
- Complete the abandoned funding formula review that was started in 2022 to provide for a stable, predictable model of funding.
- Create a hardship fund, in line with the $900 million set aside in Ontario, that institutions can access in order to ensure the ongoing quality and sustainability of programs designed to allow students to study in their own community.
- Allow institutions to draw down on reserves to maintain programming and course offerings.
- Aggressively lobby the federal government to moderate or eliminate some of these changes along with implementing a period of transition to allow institutions to adapt.
- Ensure that regional institutions are not adversely affected by these changes and that students in smaller communities are not forced to move or withdraw from a program all together.
I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience to set up a meeting. I can be reached at pgreavesaylward@yourlfa.ca.
Yours sincerely,
Pauline Greaves, PhD
President,
Langara Faculty Association
*With respect and thanks, I acknowledge that I live and work on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-waututh) Nations.*