Updates from the most recent Board of Regents meeting
On February 13, the Victoria University Board of Regents held a public meeting in the Wymilwood Lounge. During the meeting, there were presentations covering the President’s Office, Alumni Affairs, a vote on the upcoming ancillary budget, and more. President Rhonda McEwen started her presentation to the Board outlining her top three priorities: policy review, building data analytic capabilities, and developing a campus 2060 master plan.
Discussing her data analytics, President McEwen shared that Victoria College’s enrollment had increased this past year for both domestic and international students, despite fears that federal policy and discourse could lower the number of international applicants. The percentage of international students at the college in 2024 was 31 percent, in comparison to the Faculty of Arts and Science’s 34 percent. Victoria University confirmed in a statement to The Strand that it receives the same amount per student from the University of Toronto in their block grant, whether they pay domestic or international fees. She also shared that the number of Vic One applicants continued to rise, and the university is concerned about having to turn away possible members due to limited space.
The residences at Victoria College have reached near 100 percent capacity in the 2024-2025 year. The college has been working to increase the number of beds in residences by converting single rooms into doubles, and double rooms into triples, fitting an extra student into the already constricted spaces. In a statement from Victoria University, they confirmed that they had added 21 beds so far. In its statement, the university explained that “[higher] occupancy rooms are a more affordable option for students. We are seeing both an increase in the number of first-year students who want to live in residence and an increase in the number of upper-year students. This year we had to decline requests from 200 upper-year students.”
In discussion of a proposed ancillary budget for the upcoming year, the Board revealed that Victoria University accumulated a $10 million deficit during the “Covid years,” which they defined as 2019-2022. In response to the deficit, the Board’s Finance, Pension, and Audit Committee endorsed a multi-year financial recovery plan. The proposed ancillary budget is estimated to leave the university with a $700 000 surplus which will contribute to offsetting the deficit. As part of the budget, it was requested that the University raise its ancillary fees (the fees going towards the university outside of tuition) by 4.3 percent, as they are allowed to raise it 2 percent above the rate of inflation. The Board previously voted to increase the ancillary fees by 6 percent for this past year, and 6.4 percent the year before. During a discussion of the motion, not a single member of the Board mentioned ‘students’—the motion to ratify the budget and the fee increase passed.
Near the end of the public part of the meeting, the Board’s Governance and University Affairs committee mentioned aspirations to amend the Victoria University Act to allow international students the chance to be voting members on the board and help shape the institution’s governance. Following questions about the initiative from The Strand, Victoria University stated: “From early in our history, Victoria University has benefited from welcoming international students into our community of learners. While international students can and do participate as members in the Board of Regents, when the Victoria University Act was created in 1836, it only provided for Canadian citizens to be full-voting representatives.” The project is in early stages.
