College funding needs to be reviewed, Cambrian president says

Sudbury's two colleges are looking at very different numbers as they draw up their budgets for the coming year.

Cambrian is cutting programs and professors, while Boralis giving all new students an iPad.

But the presidents of the two schools sayno conclusions can be drawnfrom comparing the colleges.

"The funding is just so different that a comparison is not valid," said Sylvia Barnard, president of Cambrian College.

"Cambrian doesn't get enough funding to offer every student an iPad."

College Boral gets twice as muchprovincial funding per studentas Cambrian College.

But Boral president Denis Hubert-Dutrisac said the $500,000 for the iPads comes from fundraising not from operational funding.

He said there are several reasons Boral gets more government money.

One is while it has a smaller number of students the schools enrolment numbers have been going up.

"So, that helps us because, when I grow, I get more funding from the province," Hubert-Dutrisac said. "It has nothing to do with Francophones or Anglophones."

But he did note that translating text books and having small campuses across the province means Francophone education is more expensive.

"Bilingualism in Canada costs more than if we had one official language, absolutely," Hubert-Dutrisac said. "But is that the Canada we want?"

Barnard said she supports French colleges, but wants the province to take a closer look at how it doles out tax dollars. This spring Cambrian had to cut programs and professors to balance its books.

Even though Boral receives more funding, Hubert-Dutrisac said the college thinks like a business when it comes to maximizing revenue from parking and book sales, and expanding to new Ontario cities.

"What we are doing is diversifying our product, in order to make sure that we can survive and sustain ourselves," he said. "That's the business orientation we've given ourselves."

Hubert-Dutrisac says Boral also laid off some 50 workers a few years ago and this year, plans to cut back photocopying and employee travel.