Report: UTM Campus Council - April 25, 2022

REPORT NUMBER 53 OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA
CAMPUS COUNCIL

April 25, 2022

To the Governing Council, University of Toronto

Your Council reports that it met on April 25, 2022, at 1:10 p.m. in the Council Chamber, Room 3130,
W. G. Davis Building.

Present:
Samra Zafar (in the Chair), Shashi Kant (Vice-Chair), Alexandra Gillespie (Vice-President & Principal), Hassaan Basit, Harvey Botting, Rafael Chiuzi, Ann Curran, Dario Di Censo, Sanja Hinic- Frlog, Ivana Di Millo, Jay Nirula, Gerard Otiniano, Laura Taylor, Ziyaad Vahed, Ron Wener, Kathleen Yu.

Non-Voting Assessors:
Rhonda McEwen (Vice-Principal, Academic & Dean), Deborah Brown (Chief Administrative Officer), Susan Senese (Interim Chief Administrative Officer), Mark Overton (Assistant Principal, Student Services & Dean of Student Affairs)

Regrets:
Sultan Akif, Laura Cocuzzi, Robert Gerlai, Shelley Hawrychuk, Maggie Ku, Livon Mamiza, Evan Silva

In Attendance:
Christine Esteban (Executive Director, UTM Budget, Planning & Finance), Vicky Jezierski (Director, Hospitality & Retail Operations), Antonia Lo (Assistant Director, Student Services & Ancillaries), Lorretta Neebar (Registrar), Chad Nuttall (Assistant Dean of Students and International Initiatives), Anuar Rodriguez (Director of Strategy, Office of the Vice-President & Principal), Alexandra Waters (Coordinator: Correspondence, Events & Administration, Office of the Vice-President & Principal)

Secretariat:
Cindy Ferencz Hammond (Assistant Secretary of the Governing Council)

1. Chair’s Remarks
   
   The Chair noted that she was pleased to see members in person and looked forward to continuing governance meetings in-person, following two years of remote meetings. She noted that the final governance election results had been made available on the Elections webpage of the Office of the Governing Council website and congratulated Professor Laura Taylor, for being elected to a second term as a teaching staff member of the Campus Council. She also reminded returning members that the deadline for indicating their standing committee preferences for the 2022-23 governance year, was Monday, April 25, 2022.
   
   Ms Zafar congratulated Deborah Brown on her appointment as UTM’s new CAO and expressed her thanks to Susan Senese, who served in that role in an interim capacity over the past year. Before proceeding to the formal agenda, she reviewed in-person meeting procedures.
    
2. Report of the Vice-President and Principal
   
   In her report, Professor Gillespie welcomed members of Council and expressed her excitement about seeing members in-person. She thanked members for their engagement, energy, and commitment to UTM as they diligently participated in university governance remotely over the past two years. She also expressed her gratitude to UTM’s Information Technology staff, who were instrumental in their support and led the way for the tri-campus system in implementing remote technologies.
   
   Adding her acknowledgement to the Chair’s, Professor Gillespie welcomed UTM’s new Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to campus and to her first governance meeting. At the same time, she thanked UTM’s outgoing Interim CAO, Susan Senese, and listed some of her many accomplishments, including her extraordinary work in establishing the vaccine clinic at UTM, overseeing UTM’s Master Plan through governance, developing new space management and budget processes, and recently, re- scoping UTM’s capital projects with new constraints in mind.
   
   The Vice-President & Principal then highlighted activities during the month of April related to Earth Month. UTM’s Sustainability Office, organized a system of multiple activities leading up to Earth Day on April 22nd, including a week on sustainable food, a week on environmental justice, a week on nature and wellness, and this past week, a week on climate change and the cleaning up of the planet. Professor Gillespie was especially pleased to participate in cleaning up the area around Sir John’s Homestead, which also provided the opportunity to connect with residents’ associations near UTM. She was looking forward to re-establishing and expanding on such positive connections with UTM’s surrounding community in the post-pandemic environment.
    
3. UTM Supports During Global Crisis Situations
   
   The Chair invited Mr. Mark Overton, Assistant Principal Student Services and Dean of Student Affairs to introduce a report on how UTM was providing support during global crisis situations. He then invited Lorretta Neebar, Registrar and Director of Enrolment Management and Chad Nuttall, Assistant Dean of Students, and International Initiatives to provide a report on that topic and encouraged members to help identify students who had been impacted by crises and refer them to the services highlighted in the presentation.
   
   The presentation by Mr. Nuttall and Ms Neebar included the following highlights:
   • An overview of available supports was provided in the categories of mental health and counselling, financial support including emergency grants, bursaries and financial advising, academic advising through the Office of the Registrar and departments, immigration support through the International Education Centre (IEC) and individual and group outreach.
   • Since May 2021, the IEC, along with the Centre for Student Engagement has reached out to students affected by crises around the world on an individual basis.
   • Outreach efforts over the past twelve months were undertaken in 17 countries and the corresponding number of students reached was shown.
   • The process for outreach includes a regular environmental scan and targeted outreach to students with provision of helpful resources, advising appointments and referrals as needed.
   • Feedback from these students has been very positive.
   • For support or to identify areas of need, members were urged to contact the IEC, at international.utm@utoronto.ca.

A member asked whether outreach efforts would also be made available to other at-risk students. The Vice-Principal Academic & Dean, Professor McEwen, explained that in the last few weeks, UTM had been working on several initiatives to support students who were at risk in the international community, who were not current students, and that these included displaced students as a result of the war in Ukraine. She noted that these efforts were similar to ones that had offered support to Syrian and Afghani students over the past six years and included the offer of a summer program of study at UTM. She noted that academic departments at UTM had been especially supportive of this program, offering funding and other supports.

4. Overview of the UTM Campus Operating Budget: 2022-23 (for information)
   
   At the invitation of the Chair, Ms Christine Esteban, Executive Director, Financial & Budget Services, gave a presentation outlining considerations and projections for the 2022-23 UTM Campus Operating Budget. She began her presentation by referring members to the background materials which were made available on the governance portal, such as the Long-Range Budget Guidelines, the Annual Report on Student Financial Report 2020-21, and the Enrolment Report for 2021-22.
   
   During her presentation, she highlighted the following points:
   • As required, UTM prepared a balanced budget, while ensuring that all operating and capital spends supported the strategic framework and investments contributed to the strategic enrollment strategy.
   • UTM allocated the full amount of the gross expense budget allocated to UTM from U of T to individual UTM budgets.
   • For 2022-23, the total gross expense budget allocated to UTM was $358 million.
   • UTM’s initial expense budget was $366 million, therefore projected revenue growth does not adequately cover its costs and therefore 2022-23 capital plan has been reduced accordingly in order to present a balanced budget, of $358 million.
   • The 2022-23 undergraduate intake target was a total of 3,842 headcount of which 2,662 was domestic and 1,180 international students.
   • Compared to prior years, UTM was not growing its undergraduate intake target, nor was there a plan to change the domestic and international mix of intake.
   • The actual results varied in fall 2021 when international student enrollment exceeded target by approximately 430 in total.
   • Regarding the 2022-23 undergraduate enrolment, the target figure was a total of 15,454 headcount, split between 10,820 domestic and 4,634 international students.
   • Compared to last year's targets, undergraduate enrolment targets would be relatively flat, at a 1.7% projected increase.
   • Regarding the 2022-23 graduate enrolment, the target figure was a total of 539 headcount, split between 390 domestic and 149 international students.
   • Compared to last year's targets, there was a projected 5.3% increase in graduate enrolment
   • Key revenue assumptions for the budget included: intake targets to be met; tuition fees still frozen instead of the planned 3% increase, which results in an additional $2 million tuition revenue reduction; international tuition increase by 2% instead of the planned 4% increase, which results in an additional $4.6 million tuition revenue reduction.
   • Combined minimal enrollment growth and minimal tuition fee increases resulted in ongoing negative impact of flat revenues for at least the next five years.
   • The revenue side of the budget at $439 million already had a University Fund deduction of $59 million and was primarily made up of tuition at 68%, followed by operating grants of 13%, divisional revenue and reserves at 10%, with remainder made up of university funds allocation of 7%, other revenue, at 2%;
   • Further allocations of $54 million to university wide costs such as the university library system and the pension plan, and $27 million for student aid brought the budget to $358 million.
   • Expenditures from that amount were made up primarily of faculty and staff compensation at 60%, other expenses at 23%, which include equipment and other services, self funded student services at 6%, capital construction at 6% and infrastructure renewal, deferred maintenance, and renovations at 5%.
   • In order to balance the budget, the 2022-23 capital plan was reduced accordingly from an initial plan of $29 million to $21 million, which would not impact current key capital projects, such as the planned F2 Site Build and site renovations, but it would delay future projects related to New Build.
   • Significant challenge of shortfall in the coming years totalling more than $8 million per year and increasing, which could not be addressed by only capital projects budget reductions.
   • To address these challenges, UTM established a Budget Planning Committee, to explore alternative approaches to address future budget challenges, including cost containment measures and delaying projects.
   • COVID-19 impacted the UTM budget with significant unplanned expenditures, mainly related to additional teaching costs such as TA support for dual delivery, emergency supports for students, and student awards, increased health and safety measures, and tools for online teaching and remote work.
   • The pandemic also significantly impacted UTM ancillary budgets, where the forecast included unrestricted deficit balances until 2024-25.
   • Key spending priorities in the budget focused on students, the faculty and staff complement mental health and well-being and space.
   • Continued focus on retention and student academic success with additional staffing for two academic advising positions, one equity diversity and inclusion strategist, and two positions for campus safety.
   • To drive diversity and recruitment and help increase the percentage of students from a variety of citizenships, UTM to contribute a percentage of international tuition (4.5% in 2022-23) to international student scholarships. These contributions to rise to $17 million by 2023-24.
   • The current faculty search schedule included a total of 30 FTE’s, which were made up of 12 replacements and 18 growth positions.
   • UTM to continue to participate in the University of Toronto Diversity in Academic Hiring Fund and Indigenous Hiring Fund.
   • The staff complement hires in the budget included staff attached to the implementation of the Academic Plan, and facilities staff to maintain the new science building, and the planned F2 Site Build. There is also a very limited number of administrative staff positions approved for 2022-23.
   • Another key spending priority for UTM included investments in mental health and wellness which include the UTM Health & Counselling Centre and Accessibility Services.
   • A substantial portion of the budget was set aside for new buildings, renovations, and maintenance. For 2022-23, there was a Capital budget of $21 million.
   • Capital construction projects included the new Science Building, the Student Services Commons, the planned F2 Site Build, Central Utilities Plant, Spigel Hall / Ancillary kitchen renovations, Davis Building teaching laboratory renovations (Phase 3), and a planned new residence.
   • Overall, UTM was in a tighter budget situation than in previous years but was in good standing to meet its stated goals and planned capital projects and was committed to exploring alternative approaches to ensure that UTM continued to have a balanced budget.

In response to a member’s question about the likelihood of a change in direction with respect to funding depending on the outcome of Provincial elections, Professor Gillespie explained that there was ongoing lobbying for increased funding by the University as well as by the Council of Ontario Universities (COU). She added that she was not confident that institutions would see a change in the mandated tuition freeze, at least in the immediate term, given cost of living increases and current government priorities.

A member commented that given the inflation rate, and given UTM’s fixed costs, such as compensation, and caps on revenues, UTM would have to consider multi-year budgetary cuts. Ms Esteban explained that the Budget Planning Committee, which was mentioned in the presentation, would be considering various options, including across the board budget cuts, delaying or canceling any new capital projects, redeploying existing staff to areas of pressing need and deferring replacement of faculty and staff. Professor Gillespie further noted that UTM was still within a period of over enrollment of international students and would be for the next four to five years. In this context, increasing international enrolment would not be a feasible way to increase revenues. She noted that UTM had received only a very small fraction of the revenue for international students that it had over enrolled since 2018. Professor Gillespie also explained that starting in 2016, UTM embarked on a program of significant and needed expansion in faculty and staff complement and space and that this period of budgetary constraint should be looked at in terms of reducing growth.

In response to a member’s question, Ms Esteban explained that the 23% in the “other” category of costs represented non-compensation related costs that included computers, equipment, classroom/teaching supplies, office supplies and advertising.

CONSENT AGENDA

On motion duly moved, seconded, and carried YOUR COUNCIL APPROVED

THAT the consent agenda be adopted and that Item 7 - Report of the Previous Meeting, be approved.

5. Report on UTM Capital Projects – as at March 31, 2022
    
6. Reports for Information
   1. Report 53of the Agenda Committee (April 11, 2022)
   2. Report 52 of the Campus Affairs Committee (March 23, 2022)
       
7. Report of the Previous Meeting: Report 52– March 8, 2022 Report number 52, dated March 8, 2022, was approved.
    
8. Business Arising from the Report of the Previous Meeting
    
9. Date of Next Meeting – Tuesday, May 24, 2022, at 4:10 p.m.
   
   The Chair reminded members that the next meeting of the UTM Campus Council was scheduled for Tuesday, May 24, 2022, at 4:10 p.m.
    
10. Question Period
    
    There were no questions for the administration.
     
11. Other Business
    
    There was no other business. The Council moved In Camera.
     
12. Appointments: 2022-23 Community Members of the University of Toronto Mississauga Campus Council
    
    On motion duly moved, seconded, and carried YOUR COUNCIL APPROVED,
    
    THAT the recommended appointments in the alumni/community estate to the UTM Campus Council, as recommended by the Nominating Committee, and as specified in the Memorandum dated April 18, 2022, be approved, for terms of three years, effective July 1, 2022.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:17 p.m.

 
April 28, 2022