the north grenville
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TIMES The Voice of North Grenville
Vol. 2, No. 11
March 19, 2014
Making sense of it all
The threatened closure of the Kemptville Campus is certainly one of the most important issues to arise in North Grenville in many years. It affects so many sectors of our community, economically, socially, educationally and in terms of future development and support of the agricultural sector, that we have thought it worth giving some space to it in this issue. There have been some confusing and conflicting facts and statistics thrown around over the past week, and very little background context provided, that we know the people of North Grenville will understand why so much attention needs to be given to this story. It is a story which is on-going and every day brings new developments. If you would like to comment, complain or encourage those involved in the issue, here are some e-mail addresses that may be useful: Steve Clark, M.P.P.: info@steveclarkmpp.com; Mayor David Gordon: dgordon@northgrenville.on.ca; Premier Kathleen Wynne: premier@ontario.ca by Beth Nicol When I was six years old, I got my mouth washed out with Palmolive Soap for calling my older sister a “liar.” It is a lesson that I have never forgotten. Therefore rather than rant and lay blame, let me lay out the facts as I know them. It began in December with an email warning of a Program Prioritization Process initiated by University of Guelph and the possibility of
the closure of the Kemptville Campus. In early January, at the recommendation of Dr. Naud, the Director of the Kemptville Campus, I called Charles Cunningham, Assistant-Vice President (Communications and Public Affairs) University of Guelph. He explained that the PPP was one of many tools used when an organization is preparing to restructure. It would be used to identify and rank all academic and non-academic programs and services.
He then went on to explain the financial situation at the University of Guelph as follows: -over the past four years, the University of Guelph reallocated $46 000 000 from within operating budgets to balance the books, swallowing the loss internally. –over the next three years, there is a projected shortage in funding totalling $32.4 million. I asked him three questions: 1. What % of the cutbacks
would be passed on the Kemptville Campus? 2. What areas specifically would see funding changes? 3. Is there a chance that these cuts would result in closure for the Kemptville Campus? Mr. Cunningham replied as follows: 1. The Colleges would be responsible for $24.6 million and the balance would come from non-academic units in Guelph. Specifically, continued on page 2
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