Dear McMaster faculty and staff,

Thank you for the work you do each day to support McMaster’s mission and the success of our students. Your commitment to excellence makes our university an outstanding place to work, conduct research and study.

You may be following news about the unprecedented funding challenges facing Ontario universities. Naturally, you may be wondering how this is impacting McMaster specifically.

Our collective efforts over the past few years and the proactive steps taken over that time to save and strategically allocate resources, have placed McMaster in a better financial position than many other universities.

However, given that our enrolment remains constrained by the provincial domestic enrolment corridor and the upheaval in federal immigration policies, we anticipate revenues will continue declining for the next few years.

This is a time to stay on our current path of responsible financial stewardship. This includes a commitment to finding savings as well as new sources of revenue to ensure we can support the ambitions of our faculty members, researchers, staff and students, enabling our institution to remain financially sustainable.

One of the areas we are paying attention to is our reliance on reserve savings, also known as appropriations, to mitigate operational deficits. While this allows for measured, thoughtful actions and is an appropriate short-term use of reserves for one-time use, it is not sustainable in the long term.

To that end, we must ensure our expenses do not exceed revenues, by carefully managing costs and staying focused on our strategic priorities, both now and in the future.

This is something that university leaders, assisted by the finance and budget managers within our faculties and support units, have been working hard to do and we encourage you to offer your support at every opportunity.

From staff attrition, salary gapping and streamlining software licences to focusing on procurement processes and exploring other funding sources, each area across the university has opportunities to contribute to cost savings and revenue growth.

Senior university leaders will also continue our advocacy work with all levels of government to champion our students and our institution.

If you have ideas or questions about the university’s overall finances, we encourage you to share them with us through this form.

The principle of “One University” remains central to our approach. We are grateful for the many ways you are working together to maintain the excellence that defines McMaster.

Thank you for your leadership, hard work, and dedication to McMaster and to our students.

Sincerely,

Susan Tighe, Provost and Vice-President (Academic)
Saher Fazilat, Vice-President, Operations and Finance