Board passes Dalhousie budget for 2012‑13

The Dalhousie Board of Governors passed Dalhousie’s 25th-consecutive balanced budget at Tuesday’s meeting.

The 2012-13 budget contains planned revenues and expenditures at $330.9 million. Some of the highlights include:

• An increase of $750,000 in student assistance ($400,000 in endowment spending, $350,000 from the provincial bursary program).
• A base reduction from all budget units totaling $5.9 million, but with $1.9 million returning to faculties through Enrolment-Related Budget Adjustments.
• $4.7 million in Strategic Initiatives funding (same as last year) in areas including academic programs, student advising and campus renewal, among many others.
• $300,000 in utilities savings due to the university’s sustainability projects, including lower heating costs since switching to natural gas.
  

The budget document is available on the Financial Services website, along with the full financial report from last year.

Read: 2012-13 Dalhousie University Operating Budget
Read: 2012 Dalhousie University Annual Financial Report

President’s Report

President Tom Traves presented the Board with his annual update on the university’s Strategic Focus. The document contains updates on the university’s progress towards 27 different objectives related to the eight priorities in the Focus document.

Read: Dalhousie University Strategic Focus – Update 2012

In sharing priorities for the next year—his final one as Dalhousie president—Dr. Traves highlighted the forthcoming merger with NSAC, as well as plans to launch new processes and structures to support academic innovation, look at ways to manage costs more effectively, and work with the province on a new university funding formula.

New Board members

The Board welcomed some new members and bid farewell to some departing ones. Sherry Porter and Paula Simon were appointed for three-year terms, the former to fill one of the two vacant Order-in-Council appointments, the latter to replace outgoing Board member Lynn Irving, retiring from the Board after serving nine years. Also retiring is Nancy MacCready-Williams, one of four representatives nominated by the Dalhousie Alumni Association. The association will be recommending a nomination for that position in the near future.

Sherry Porter’s former roles include director of public affairs for Sobeys Inc., vice-president of public affairs and marketing for Nova Scotia Power and vice-president of corporate and government affairs for Shoppers Drug Mart. She’s also an NSAC alumnus, and was awarded the school’s NSAC Alumni Volunteer of the Year Award in 2006. Paula Simon is a partner is Simon Chisholm Consulting, having previously worked at the senior level in both Federal and provincial governments in three provinces. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Social Work from Dalhousie.

This was also the first Board meeting for new student representatives Jamie Arron and Richard Clark. Mr. Clark is in the third year of his Bachelor of Arts (political science) and is a past president of Howe Hall, while Mr. Arron, International Development Studies major, is the current DSU president. The third student member on the Board for this coming year is Curtis Johnston.

As well, Jay Abbass, George McLellan and John Baxter (Senate-nominated faculty rep) were re-nominated to the Board for additional three-year terms.

Environmental Health and Safety Awards

The annual Environmental Health and Safety Awards were presented to three deserving recipients.

• Josh Leon, dean of the Faculty of Engineering, for his leadership in integrating health and safety as part of the learning experience of the faculty’s students, and across the faculty in general.
• Blaine Cleghorn, assistant dean, dental clinical sciences of the Faculty of Dentistry, for his contributions in communicating and developing and supporting programs for faculty, staff and students in health and safety.
• Facilities Management’s Hazardous Materials Team, who brings a proactive approach to identifying, quantifying and addresses hazardous materials in university buildings.