{"id":103994,"date":"2017-05-24T23:44:45","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T03:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=103994"},"modified":"2017-05-24T23:44:45","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T03:44:45","slug":"university-of-saskatchewan-offering-buyouts-to-deal-with-drop-in-provincial-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/05\/24\/university-of-saskatchewan-offering-buyouts-to-deal-with-drop-in-provincial-money\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Saskatchewan offering buyouts to deal with drop in provincial money"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The University of Saskatchewan is offering voluntary buyouts to its administrative staff to help cope with provincial budget cuts. (Photo: University of Saskatchewan\/ Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SASKATOON \u2013The University of Saskatchewan is offering voluntary buyouts to its administrative staff to help cope with provincial budget cuts.<\/p>\n

An internal memo distributed to members of the Administrative and Supervisory Personnel Association on Wednesday said the university had reached an agreement with the union to offer a \u201cvoluntary exit incentive program\u201d to employees.<\/p>\n

The association represents 1,100 workers at the university.<\/p>\n

Cheryl Carver, the university’s assistant vice-president of human resources, said in the memo that the president has been clear that savings will be found in attrition and voluntary options.<\/p>\n

She added that staff salaries and benefits made up 70 per cent of the university’s budget.<\/p>\n

Applications to accept a voluntary buyout are being accepted by the university between June 1 and June 30, and buyout recipients would leave the university by January 31, 2018.<\/p>\n

Carver added the university is continuing to work with other unions representing workers to come to an agreement on a voluntary exit program.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, we have not been able to reach an agreement on voluntary options for our staff in CUPE 1975,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cCUPE executive required guarantees that we would not contract out any services as a result of exits. This type of guarantee is too restrictive at a time when the university must find savings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The university is trying to fill a 5.6 per cent budget gap left by the provincial budget in the spring.<\/p>\n

Several departments have seen their funding slashed already, including an 11 per cent cut to agriculture and bioresources.<\/p>\n

Carver said in the memo they are still in discussions with the USask Faculty Association on extending a reduced appointment program for positions opened up by retiring professors.<\/p>\n

No one at the university was made available for comment Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The university also said it has to close a research centre because funding was cut in the provincial budget.<\/p>\n

It says the International Centre for Northern Governance and Development will close on June 15.<\/p>\n

The centre’s research has focused on concerns in areas such as northern governance, First Nations and resource development, northern innovation and climate and socio-economics.<\/p>\n

It also provided graduate-level degree programs.<\/p>\n

University president Peter Stoicheff says the university is \u201cdeeply disheartened\u201d by the loss of provincial government funding for the centre.<\/p>\n

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SASKATOON \u2013The University of Saskatchewan is offering voluntary buyouts to its administrative staff to help cope with provincial budget cuts. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":104006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,604,16],"tags":[19535,14330],"class_list":["post-103994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-education","category-news","tag-provincial-money","tag-university-of-saskatchewan","mauthors-ckom","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}