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“The Hogg report is very detailed and offers a much more reasonable plan for creating a sustainable and independent NSCAD than is contained within the Windsor report, which is the report the government chose to make public.”
Halif
ax (03 April 2012) - A coalition of students, staff and faculty are asking the Government of Nova Scotia to clarify several aspects of a report on the financial difficulties at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) University that was submitted to government in April of 2010 but was only recently made public after the coalition filed a freedom of information request.
“We would like the government to clarify why they felt it necessary to bury this very helpful report and commission an entirely new one this past fall,” said Chris Ferns, the President of the Association of Nova Scotia University Teachers (ANSUT). “The Hogg report is very detailed and offers a much more reasonable plan for creating a sustainable and independent NSCAD than is contained within the Windsor report, which is the report the government chose to make public.”
The 2010 report, written by William Hogg, contains several recommendations that seem to be at odds with the government’s current actions and recommendations contained within the Windsor report. Hogg, a former Deputy Minister of Finance and a Chartered Accountant, states that the next review of NSCAD’s finances need not be conducted until end of the 2012-13 fiscal year and also urges the government to continue the past practice of funding NSCAD’s facilities and space related costs.
Hogg also wrote that, “in the longer term, [NSCAD’s] finances could be at risk because of insufficient funding of its academic programs” adding “NSCAD is different from other universities in Nova Scotia because of its small enrolment and unique programming.”
“The Hogg report underlines the Department of Education’s past practice of funding space related costs and advises the government to continue that practice,” said NSCAD Faculty Union President, Alvin Comiter. The Hogg report also states that NSCAD is being operated in an economical manner, and draws attention to the inadequacies of the current government funding formula.
The Nova Scotia government chose to make thesecond report, from December 2011, public. This report discusses opens the way to program closures, urges NSCAD to explore “collaborative arrangements” with other universities and stipulates that the university not ask for additional government funding.
The Nova Scotia Post-Secondary Education Coalition is comprised of representatives from the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU/NUPGE), the Association of Nova Scotia University Teachers (ANSUT), and the Canadian Federation of Students-Nova Scotia (CFS-NS).
More information:
Read the buried Hogg report here: http://www.novascotia.ca/lae/HigherEducation/documents/HoggReportApril162010.pdf
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