At the April 6 senate session, financial commitments to student aid and transparency dominated discussion as senators debated two proposals rejected by a senate committee and reviewed the coming year’s budget plan.

Prior to the Senate Executive Committee’s (SEC) meeting on March 24, arts undergraduate senator Andrew Chang and environment faculty senator James Nugent separately submitted proposals to the committee for inclusion in the April 6 senate agenda. Chang’s motion called for a new annual bursary worth $800,000 to offset the loss in student grant aid due to OSAP funding changes, while Nugent’s motion called for a new ad hoc Senior Leadership Review Committee to discuss senior administrative and executive compensation. The SEC declined to add them, with the committee’s report to the Senate stating both were “not appropriate for inclusion on the agenda at this time.” 

Chang’s proposed bursary would be available to domestic undergraduate and graduate students in Ontario who meet standard UW bursary requirements. Students would be able to apply by completing the general bursary application form in Quest.

The SEC rejected the request as the motion was “premature to bring forward at this time,” due to the lack of information from the provincial government on funding allocation.

“We don’t know what the OSAP rules are going to be [and] don’t know how the calculations are going to be carried out,” said VP academic and provost Thomas Duever, who sits on the committee.

Duever also stated that “because of the existing federal component [of OSAP financial aid], the difference may not be as large as the headlines suggested.” He cited that for an average student receiving $20,000 in OSAP funding, approximately 75 per cent would be federally funded while 25 per cent would be provincially funded. Prior to changes, the average funding distribution for this student would be $12,000 in loans and $8,000 in grants. Under the new grant proportion cap announced in February, that student may receive an estimated $15,000 in loans and $5,000 in grants.

Duever also noted that the unfreezing of domestic tuition next year would result in an estimated $1.5 million increase in Tuition Set Aside (TSA), which would go towards additional bursaries for students. TSA is a provincially mandated portion of domestic tuition revenue used for need-based student aid.

Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) president Damian Mikhail pushed for more concrete action. “Currently, the commitment that I have heard is that we are going to be looking at data, not that we are going to be responding with a specific outcome that could increase grant funding for needs-based assistance,” he said. Mikhail submitted a motion calling for the provost to outline actions taken to mitigate the loss of financial aid, and to construct a report on the impacts of OSAP funding changes on UW student finances.

Graduate Student Association (GSA) president Meray Sadek and science undergraduate senator Jordan Bauman backed the motion to add Mikhail’s proposal to the agenda. Alumnus Acey Kaspar and math faculty senator Hans de Sterck also supported the motion.

Mikhail, Bauman, and Sadek noted that even though explicit detail from the province is yet to come, UW administration has failed to follow through on messaging and visible commitments to students impacted by the OSAP cuts. Bauman pointed out the University of Toronto highlighted student concerns when releasing their budget on March 27 (“U of T budget makes students a priority amid shifting post-secondary landscape“). Mikhail stressed that the message of “broad supports, understanding and empathy” for students “resonated less and less every day” as they perceived silence and inaction from the administration, while the ability for some to enroll in courses is under threat from the OSAP cuts. Sadek added that GSA representatives had requested reports of the impact on cost of living at Graduate Student Relations Committee (GSRC) meetings.

The vote to add the motion to the agenda for later discussion passed. The Senate did not open further discussion on the matter due to time constraints from other matters.

In its response to Nugent’s motion for a Senior Leadership Review Committee, the SEC cited that compensation is governed by provincial regulation (such as the Broader Public Sector Exec Compensation Act, 2014) and that the matter falls under the jurisdiction of the Board of Governors’ Governance and Leadership Committee, rather than the senate. A future report from the Board’s committee on the matter would be made available to senators.

An extensive debate ensued following the news. “I think we can all agree that requests for greater transparency really helped inform the Senate in terms of the budget process, and help build confidence in our senior leadership who are making these decisions,”  Nugent said. He added that senior administration has often cited salaries as a “key variable” when constructing budget plans, but not given senators sufficient information on compensation to make informed decisions. No senators sit on the Governance and Leadership committee and no public documents exist that provide a “value for money assessment” on senior compensation, Nugent stressed.

De Sterck supported the motion to add his proposal to the agenda. He noted that it was “an important signal from the university community” and “a serious issue” for both faculty and students which warranted further discussion.

Murray Gamble, chair of the Board of Governors, responded that the Governance and Leadership Committee set “very conservative” compensation ranges. According to Gamble, executive compensation for the president and VP have had minimal adjustments outside of “a meaningful change in the scope or responsibility levels, which we did have some changes [about] in the past few years.” Aside from senior executive roles, Gamble added that the Board is working on a review process for senior administrative roles and that a future report on the matter will be made to the Senate.

UW alumnus Vikas Gupta and arts faculty member James Skidmore opposed the motion, with Skidmore calling the endeavour “a fishing expedition that just [seemed] inappropriate” as the senate’s primary responsibility was oversight over academic affairs. He also noted that senators who sit on the Board of Governors can give input when committee reports are presented at Board meetings, which was “the appropriate venue” for Senate involvement.

“First of all, I’m vegetarian, so I don’t fish,” Nugent replied. “Second of all, what we’ve demonstrated is that there’s a lot of important things to debate here.” Nugent added that the University of Waterloo Act, which lays the groundwork for UW governance, states that the duties of the Senate include making recommendations to the Board of Governors on matters “relevant to the operation of the University” and “policies concerning the internal allocation or use of university resources.”

University president Vivek Goel acknowledged Nugent’s request for more transparency, noting that leadership will commit to making reports on compensation and compensation frameworks for executives publicly available.

Ultimately, the vote to add Nugent’s motion to the agenda failed and the proposal was not included in the senate agenda.