Dear Brock community,

I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on work that has gone on towards moving Brock towards a sustainable future — financially and academically. Building sustainable futures is one of our guiding principles in the recently launched institutional strategic plan, Transforming people, reimagining the future.

Like other universities across the province, Brock continues to face significant financial challenges, the result of diminished public investment, abrupt changes in government policy and external economic pressures.

These factors contribute to Brock’s structural deficit, which puts the University further behind financially at the start of each fiscal year.

At the outset of this year’s budget process, this deficit was nearly $28 million. In addition to this was $11 million that had been temporarily cut from the budget the previous year, bringing the total shortfall to $39 million. But thanks to the hard work and creativity of individuals all across the campus, we are making progress on reducing the deficit.

The following list represents the kind of work that has gone on and continues.

• All units across campus have made difficult decisions to postpone hirings, find budget savings and put in place strategies for more efficient use of our existing resources.
• Across the teaching Faculties, significant work has been undertaken to find savings and efficiencies in the part-time teaching budget by collapsing sections, rotating courses and ensuring class sizes are aligned with room capacity. For example, the Faculty of Education reduced the total number of sections in 2025-26 by 180, and the Faculty of Humanities removed seminars for upper-level courses.
• At the Faculty of Social Sciences, four Departments are participating in the Curriculum Delivery Initiative to improve student retention, flexibility and graduation rates for students in their programs — these considerations include consultations with regard to prerequisites, cross-listing courses and barriers to student success.
• At the Faculty of Mathematics and Science, the course enrolment and scheduling policy has seen a greater than 90 per cent adoption across Departments and programs, resulting in the cancellation of low enrolment courses and the standardization of teaching assistant allocations across units.
• At the Goodman School of Business, options are being explored for a fully online MBA program. The undergraduate entrance requirements are also being reviewed for alignment with the wider sector to help grow enrolment in the future.
• The professional Master of Sport Management and Master of Athletic Therapy programs will be launching in Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 respectively at the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences. Both programs are expected to have a significant student interest and be areas of academic distinction for Brock.
• Brock Sports and Recreation will be launching a physiotherapy clinic at Canada Games Park this year, which is expected to be generate revenue for the University and increase the health-care offerings available to our community.
• The Library, in consultation with the Department of Geography and Tourism and the Associate Deans, will be changing the service delivery model for the Map, Data and GIS Library to appointment only this coming summer. This will ensure that the needs of the library’s users are met in an efficient and sustainable manner.
• The Faculty of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs has formed a Graduate Funding Working Group that is focused on developing recommendations around graduate student support.
• Financial Services has worked to have Amazon lockers installed across campus to create efficiencies for thousands of packages that are delivered weekly to campus, mostly destined for residences.
• Infrastructure and Operations Services realized cost savings for utilities and carbon taxes through energy efficiencies on campus.
• Co-op, Career and Experiential Education is supporting the growth and success of our co-op and plus programs offerings through enhanced student professional preparation, increased employer participation, and program and event fees.
• Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) will increase its revenue generation by growing its enrolments and offerings in 2025-26, with four additional micro-credentials that align with industry-recognized accreditations and five new continuing teacher education offerings planned in the next academic year. In addition to new programs, PCS is also looking to increase total enrolments by five per cent in the next fiscal year.
• Transitioning Campus Store operations to Follett Canada. This transition will allow the campus to continue providing our students with the course materials needed for the classes while also supporting the University’s overall financial sustainability strategy.
• A renewed focus on the Spring/Summer Term to provide a suite of expanded course offerings and broaden the opportunity for students to facilitate their degree completion. Increased Spring/Summer engagement will serve as both an important revenue enhancement for the University and as an indicator that a robust trimester model may help to facilitate student success and maximize campus utilization.

At the same time, we are enhancing our student recruitment and retention efforts, finding more efficient ways to do our work and better aligning our limited resources with the priorities identified in our strategic plan, including through the work of the Curriculum Delivery Initiative.

Like you, I’ve read the announcements of program suspensions and closures at institutions across Ontario in recent months. Discussions about Brock’s approach are ongoing, but it is critical that we think creatively about our future, with the goal of creating strong programs that serve the interests of current and potential students. This will mean that we will need to continually assess our programming in order to achieve a sustainable future for the University.

Budget cuts alone aren’t a long-term solution to our financial challenges. The post-secondary funding model in Ontario needs to change, as noted by the provincial government’s own Blue-Ribbon panel. Brock’s sustainability reviews mandated by the government will be an important part of this as well. These third-party reviews, and subsequent recommendations, will be focused on identifying actions institutions can take to increase revenue-generating opportunities and drive long-term cost savings.

Meanwhile, our work is on the continuous improvement of our academic programs. While we continue to advocate for multi-year commitments of government funding and flexibility on tuition, we must also focus on growing enrolment and improving retention. The Curriculum Delivery Initiative is a support available for units who wish to engage in these critical conversations.

We’ll be holding a community information session on Thursday, April 10 from 10 to 11 a.m. in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre to provide more background on the government’s funding model and our financial sustainability strategy.

Please register before Friday, April 4 at 5 p.m. if you are planning to attend.

Knowing what I know about Brock, I am confident in our community’s ability to adapt in these unpredictable times and succeed as we build a sustainable, resilient future.

Sincerely,

Arja Vainio-Mattila
Provost and Vice-President, Academic