University Name

Budget Reduction Group

• Non- Teaching Budget Reduction Group

The Budget Reduction Group (or Non-Teaching Budget Reduction Group) was established in the 1992-1993 academic year as a project team with a mandate to oversee budget reductions and retructuring proposals, in the face of harsh economic conditions and severely reduced government funding in the early 1990s. In Ontario, for example, an already low 2% increase in funding was eliminated in favour of a one-time $56 million restructuring grant for the province's post-secondary educational system in the 1993-1994 fiscal year. As a result, Ryerson was forced to consider and implement cuts, mainly in non-teaching areas, in order to meet the goals of its Financial Management Plan and reduce its cumulative operating deficit. The following report in the March 19, 1993 issue of the University's newsletter, FORUM, summarizes the process by which restructuring decisions and budget reductions were to be achieved: "Decisions on restructuring involved a staged process that began with a project team of Richard Malinski, Larissa Allen, Marion Creery and Peter Gee meeting with individual directors to review their restructuring proposals, based on scenarios that called for budget reductions of 4%, 6% and 8%. The proposals were examined against criteria that included centrality to the mission and institutional priorities; potential for technology substitution and business practices modification; capacity to streamline or flatten organizational structure; and relevant historical and comparative financial data. The project team recommended targets to each director, including position closings and non-salary reductions. It was then reported to the group of directors, with members of the executive in attendance, on which matters the project team and individual directors had differences of opinion, for the purpose of collective decision-making. Consensus on restructuring changes was reached in that manner." The records in this collection were turned over by Richard Malinski, Chief Librarian and a member of the Budget Reduction Group and were deposited in the Archives in 1995 under A.1995-004. They cover the 1992-1994 period. By and large, the original order of these records was maintained in their arrangement into the Archives Collection. Some material was re-organized in chronological order. Most of the sub-series in this record group have a restricted or closed access condition because of the sensitive and recent nature of the information. This status will be subject to re-evaluation in future years. The physical extent of this collection is 12 cm.