By Jonathan Colford
Concerns about the double cohort dominated much of Monday’s board of governors meeting.
University administrators discussed provincial objectives, including enrolment targets for 2003, considering the expected increase of students.
The problem for admissions is predicting numbers of students, per program, who will be attending Ryerson next September, said associate registrar Gene Logel.
The Government is trying funding to university enrolment targets, said Paul Stenton, Ryerson’s director of university planning. The university is negotiating those targets for 2003.
Ryerson still doesn’t know how much money it will receive from the province for the financial year, which ended April 30, 2002, said Linda Grayson, vice-resident administration and student affairs.
Adding to the enrolment woes, Ryerson faces a potential problem with scholarship funding.
Due to volatility in worldwide financial markets, some scholarship endowments are not earning the minimum return needed to pay out yearly awards.
Grayson said there would be no problems paying scholarships this year.
Another fund that won’t be renewed is the Ryerson Foundation, which offered tax breaks to large donors of the university.
Ryerson never publicized the foundation and developed other fundraising arms.
“We see no advantages to the foundation,” vice-president of university advancement Gordon Cressy said.
The foundation has $5,608 and only one known donor. The money will go towards Ryerson’s highest fundraising priority, the new engineering building, Cressy said.
Student representative Alex Lisman accused Ryerson’s board of governors of not being aggressive enough in lobbying government for more funding after the meeting.
He called the board’s current plan an “internal, behind-closed-doors strategy” that doesn’t involve the wider public. Instead, he urged the board to be more active in post-secondary funding issues as student representatives presented a petition with about 3,200 signatures.
Lisman said the board should be more vocal and reach out to the general public, especially parents of the students who make up the double cohort.
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