The president of Memorial University isn’t ruling out the possibility of more job losses when MUN’s next budget cycle begins.
The university has eliminated more than 100 positions, resulting in $12.7-million in annual savings.
Memorial is currently grappling with a major budgetary deficit – in excess of $20 million, and a number of decisions have been made to address the shortfall.
That includes plans to sell off of a number of assets including the Harlow Campus, Signal Hill Campus and the Johnson GEO Centre.
MUN’s Harlow Campus (Memorial University)
While most of the affected job positions were eliminated through attrition and retirements, there were 19 employees that had to be let go.
There are no further workforce reductions planned for the current fiscal year, but President Janet Morrison can’t guarantee there won’t be more layoffs in the next fiscal year.
She says MUN doesn’t have multi-year revenue commitments from government. While they are working through that, she says that “chronic insecurity and unpredictability” leaves them in a “tricky spot” for making commitments.
Morrison says if MUN wants to remain one of Canada’s top universities, it has to “stop living on the edge of a fiscal cliff.”
She emphasizes however that she wants the university to live up to its full potential.
She says that work is ongoing, noting that enrollment for this fall is “very positive and strong.”
