MEDIA RELEASE: Hiring Freeze
MUNL’s announcement of hiring freeze and budgetary shortfalls a direct result of government funding cuts
On Friday, December 6, Dr. Neil Bose, President (pro tempore) of Memorial University, announced during a budget update that full-time hiring will be frozen at the university following a significant drop in student enrolment that led to a $9.5 million budgetary deficit for the 2024-25 year.
Enrolment at Memorial dropped by 5.4% this year alone, and overall undergraduate enrolment for this year is the lowest it has been in over 40 years. Overall undergraduate enrolment for 2024-25 dipped below 13,000 students for the first time since 1983. It is extremely evident that skyrocketing tuition fees as well as decreased funding from the Furey government have directly caused the university to face these budgetary challenges, as students have been saying for years.
In September, MUNSU, along with every single on-campus student and labour union, launched the Fund MUN campaign, calling for the provincial government to end its drastic cuts to the university’s operating grant - cuts that have amounted to a 52% decrease in overall government funding to the university since 2013. Despite university administration actively minimizing the problem, we can see that students and workers are correct that the Furey government’s choices to defund the university has caused real, tangible impacts on students’ ability to access education.
Students are concerned for the future of their university. Ahead of the university’s 100th anniversary celebrations next year, the Furey government’s decision to drastically reduce public funding for Newfoundland and Labrador’s only public university is causing increased reputational harm to the institution. Students are worried about minimum class sizes reducing course availability, cuts to program offerings, and further increases in tuition fees. For the future of our province, we need to have an accessible, high-quality, public university. The Furey government is putting the future of the university at risk, and in turn the future of the province. Students are extremely angry and are calling on the provincial government to immediately increase funding to the university and commit to prioritizing education in the provincial budget.
MUNSU stands with all students during this stressful time, and echoes their calls for the Furey government to reverse the massive cuts they have made to public education in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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MUNSU can be reached for comment via external@munsu.ca or (709) 330-6941.