U of A cuts short-sighted

For more than a century, business and community leaders have guided the University of Alberta with pride and thoughtfulness to become one of Canada’s finest universities. This goal was not achieved overnight.

University reputation is a competitive business that requires diligence, strong and wise leadership, an industrious and often illustrious faculty, and a community willing to say this is an important endeavour.

In contrast to the careful development of the U of A, an elected government like Alberta’s has a brief tenure, and the views and people change from election to election. Politicians can be shortterm, sometimes capricious administrators of the public purse.

The optics of the present Progressive Conservative government’s interference in the U of A’s funding and well-being are ugly. This government seems unable to manage its own financial house and is unprepared to come to grips with the reality of unstable natural resource revenues.

To compensate for failings and shortfalls, the government turns to the apparent softest targets for budget cuts.

How does one value a soft-target gem such as the U of A, which educates the fertile minds of our young, while producing intelligent, productive citizens?

New, useful ideas leading to the development of new things and improvements in society constantly arise from research being done there. The U of A is not the oilsands or oil revenue, but each of us needs to think long and hard about its worth to Albertans.