As originally reported by Miriam Jones, UNBSJ has unveiled a special Wall of Friends featuring printouts of signatures from the online petition. Why didn’t I think of this?

The large letters read “KEEP YOUR SPIRITS UP UNBSJ. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.” It was hard to take a good picture since the wall is so long, and this is only 1/3rd of all 3250+ signatures.

Contrary to what some believe, UNBSJ isn’t saved yet. Although the term “polytechnic” is off the table, the possibility of diminishing UNBSJ is still on the table. The fight is not over!

This post is part five of many in my series as I point out some facts and figures from a special financial review that shed light on real problems affecting UNBSJ as well as UNB as a whole. I will compile a few relevant quotations from the financial review, and offer a brief summary to bring it all together.

“UNB is operating with less overall resources than most other national comprehensive universities.” (page 28)

“The dramatic decline in provincial funding over that past two decades has shifted the relative burden of revenue to students. With tuition reaching maximum competitive levels, the ability to continue this revenue shift is not feasible.” (page 18)

“New Brunswick in particular is lagging behind the rest of the country in R&D investment on a per capita basis. For 2003, per capita funding for R&D in New Brunswick was $258 versus the Atlantic province average of $346 and the Canadian average of $758.” (page 14)

“The continued positioning of UNB as a nationally-recognized comprehensive university will require substantial levels of provincial funding beyond what is necessary to fund current operations. Securing that commitment and funding will require alignment of UNB’s strategy with that of the Province of New Brunswick” (page 40)

In the graph, you see where New Brunswick and UNB rank based on the amount of money given to each university as operating grants divided by the number of full-time equivalent students. We’re near the bottom of the bucket, as you can see. In my opinion, we have no excuse for this because PEI and Newfoundland are near the head of the pack, despite being two of the smallest and poorest provinces. We’re not going to get more out of our post-secondary education system until we start putting more into it. Shuffling our institutional models around serves only as a mechanism to distract the population from the real funding problems.

EDIT: That’s all I have for now. Keep checking back as I blog about new things when I have time.