Adult basic education and scholarships at Cumberland College will be affected by cuts announced in the provincial budget.
The college will lose $127,300 off of its operating grant, a five per cent cut. It will lose $60,000 for adult basic education. The province will also only match $48,000 worth of scholarships, down from $74,000.
“Overall, we didn’t find it was as harsh a budget as we were anticipating or expecting,” said Tom Weegar, the college’s president. “We were kind of preparing for that anyway, so we were ready for that reduction. It means we can’t do as much as we’d like to.”
To cut costs, the college will look at all of its programs and fill them to capacity as much as possible. For example, there’s a few adult basic education programs that are smaller and can be brought together. It will reduce travel for its employee and board, meeting via a link instead of face-to-face. The college has already merged two senior management positions. Weegar said the college will also have a closer look at the overall budget and find efficiencies.
Adult basic education students that have completed Grade 12 but need to upgrade a course so they have to meet the entrance requirement for a post-secondary program will now have to pay tuition. Those that haven’t passed Grade 12 will still get it for free.
“They’re not a wealthy group of folks,” Weegar said. “They’re going back to do some ABE training to improve their circumstances in life and yet the province ends up putting some of the burden onto those students that can least afford it.”
For the most part, the college’s program funding has been left intact. It has also received more money to pay for preventative maintenance – it’s getting $63,000, an increase from $22,000.
“In the grander scheme of things, we’re looking okay,” Weegar said.
