Cash crunch slows plans for architecture program

Plans to establish a school of architecture at the University of Saskatchewan suffered a setback this month when a university committee said that while it likes the proposed curriculum, it cannot recommend approving it until sufficient funding is secured.

“Concerns were raised about resourcing for the proposed programs, particularly given the financial situation the U of S finds itself in currently,” the academic programs committee said in a report to the university’s 116-member council, which oversees academic issues.

The school would offer two degrees, a bachelor of design in architecture and a master of architecture; it would have 11 faculty members and cost “just over” $3 million per year to run, plus startup costs, the report stated.

The university has been planning to introduce the programs since 2010, when the City of Saskatoon donated the 108-year-old John Deere Plow Co. building to the institution for that purpose. The report said extensive renovations would add to the startup costs.

“I’m generally optimistic,” Colin Ripley, the program director hired to move the project forward, said in February. “The (John Deere building) needs to be essentially gutted and completely renovated for that to happen.”

The university, meanwhile, is grappling with a five per cent — $18 million — cut to its $312 million operating grant handed down by the Saskatchewan Party government in its 2017-18 budget. It responded by slashing $12.2 million from its budget for services and academic programs, and offering some buyouts and early retirement packages.

Former U of S provost Michael Atkinson described the situation as “dire,” but university president Peter Stoicheff has said the institution won’t be defined by its current financial woes.

The proposed architecture school is making its way through what Ripley described as a long series of committee approvals.

University council is expected to receive but not discuss the report at its meeting on Oct. 19.