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THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013
VOL. 24, NO. 144
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Enrolment growth key to VIU budget University aims to recruit and retain 500 full-time domestic students next year BY JENN M C GARRIGLE THE NEWS BULLETIN
CHRIS BUSH/THE NEWS BULLETIN
Emil Roessingh, site supervisor, and Teresa Pring, Habitat for Humanity Mid-Vancouver Island executive director, are ready to break ground for new digs at the organization’s construction site on Prideaux Street. A groundbreaking ceremony was hosted Wednesday for a new duplex home to house two Nanaimo families needing a hand.
Habitat project turns houses into homes BY CHRIS BUSH THE NEWS BULLETIN
Habitat for Humanity Mid-Vancouver Island has broken ground for a new duplex that will become home for two Nanaimo families needing a hand up. The ceremony was hosted Wednesday afternoon at the construction site at the corner of Prideaux and Hecate Streets, next door to where a duplex was built in 2012. The new duplex will become the 13th and 14th homes built by the organization in Nanaimo and constructed to meet the Built
Green Gold Standard in keeping with the organization’s goal to keep home ownership and operating costs to a minimum. “It’s a duplex, 1,100 square feet per side with three bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms,” said Emil Roessingh, site manager. “We’re shooting for the [Built Green] gold standard this year. We might go for platinum this year and see what happens, so we’re trying to be energy efficient and we’re trying to use as many students as possible in the build.” To keep construction costs down Habitat for Humanity uses
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as many students as possible from Vancouver Island University’s construction trades programs, such as the pre-apprenticeship carpentry program. “This year we’ve also got the [VIU] heavy equipment operators program taking part with an excavator,” said Teresa Pring, Habitat for Humanity mid-Island executive director. “So we want to involve every aspect of VIU’s program, going forward ... We try to involve every aspect of VIU that we can because it gives youth a chance to get a hands-on classroom right on site.” See ‘DONATIONS’ ‘ /5
Growing the student population is one of the main strategies Vancouver Island University aims to use to meet revenue targets in the 2013-14 budget. The university’s board of governors recently approved the $131-million budget, which includes plans to recruit and retain 500 more full-time domestic students next year in programs partially funded by the province; and growing enrolment in cost-recovery programs – those that are entirely paid for through tuition – such as continuing education and international education. “It’s a tough economic environment, the government is cutting us,” said Pat Eagar, vice-president of administration and finance. “The largest challenge was we were definitely committed to supporting investment in our people. We’re doing it by growing and getting more entrepreneurial.” The budget also includes recently negotiated, modest increases to salaries and benefits with its three unions, which translates into an additional $3.4 million in expenditures across all three bargaining units; a two-per cent tuition increase for domestic students and increases of between four
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and 5.7 per cent for international students; parking fee increases; minor investments in information technology; and a new staffing position dedicated to implementing the recently developed enrolment management plan. Enrolment has declined by 6.4 per cent in the past three fiscal years, a happenstance Eagar attributes in part to the faculty association strike that shut down the university for a month in 2011, and the university aims to reverse that trend to achieve the targeted growth levels. “We’re looking to return to our enrolment levels of 2010,” said Eagar. “It’s not a new level.” For international students, the target is an increase of about 160 students, achieved partly by adding another Master in Business Administration class. She said if these targets are not achieved, university officials believe the budget can still be balanced by using salary vacancy savings – historically, the institution has a four per cent staff vacancy rate, as it sometimes takes time to replace staff. Another factor that could take the pressure off a little is provincial funding levels, Eagar added. ◆ See ‘TUITION’ /4
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