Update

November 19, 2008

To all Queen’s Faculty and Staff:

In my Report to the Community on September 25, I indicated that, like many of our peer institutions, we are facing serious financial challenges. Our costs have risen, driven by a variety of factors. At the same time, our primary source of revenue - government funding - has grown far more slowly. In light of these circumstances, I concluded that we need to change the way we do business. Since then, as you all know, an already difficult situation has been made even more serious by the recent market turmoil and the resulting economic downturn.

Since my Report, I have been working with the Vice-Principals and Deans to flesh out our approach to these problems. We have moved to a three-year planning horizon, recognizing that we will not solve these problems in a single year. Our goal is to find, over this period, the means of resolving our financial difficulties, while preserving the quality of education and preserving jobs to the extent that this is possible.

The two core elements of our approach are the following:

1. A 15% budget cut to be implemented over the next 3 years. This will be applied to all units on campus, including administrative units. Different units may deal with the three-year timeframe in different fashions. In all cases, I am counting on the initiative of units and individuals to find creative solutions to our problems, either by reducing costs or increasing revenues.


2. Mitigation strategies focused on reducing operating costs and enriching revenue generation on a university-wide basis. Preliminary work by the Task Forces has identified several areas where we can expect to make savings, such as use of a preferred travel planner and university-wide purchasing arrangements. A number of additional areas have been identified where we can hope to increase our revenue sources. I will be publicizing the preliminary reports of the Task Forces soon and I encourage you to respond with comments and suggestions.

Deans and Directors can expect to receive budget planning parameters from the Vice-Principals in the days ahead. With your help, we will solve these problems. I will be making a second address to the community early in the new year, where I will lay out in more detail the road forward.

Sincerely,

Tom Williams
Principal and Vice-Chancellor