Tim Rahilly message to campus community

Posted June 19, 2020

Transcript

Hi everyone, it’s Tim and I have a few updates I wanted to share with all of you. Last week, the government of Alberta suspended the investment management agreements that were in place as we did our budget planning.

The suspension of the investment management agreements are a welcome piece of news, they don’t change our financial reality though. Our Government of Alberta campus grant is reduced, year over year, and we are still dealing with the effects of the pandemic. So we have to figure out for the year ahead how we’re going to live within our board approved budget. So we have a lot of work to do on that front.

It’s still good news, because there was a lot of concern around the impact of externally funded things like research and revenue generation. The removal of the expense reduction target means we don’t have to worry about that.

Keeping on the theme of the Government of Alberta, this week the government announced the proponent for the system review that they’ll be undertaking. This is a comprehensive system review that’s a roadmap to 2030. So I would encourage those of you who have the time, to look at the RFP as well as perhaps the recent blog by Alex Usher that you can find at higheredstrategy.com.

The system review is going to look at all kinds of things including the financial viability of the system, the suitability for our programs in terms of creating employment and a number of other important issues. I’m certainly going to do my best to be engaged in the system review and would encourage you to pay careful attention to it and to track it carefully.

Now turning to some local news, here at Mount Royal, summer is about to be upon us and as you know, for a number of years the University has kept summer hours. Of course, we’re all working at a distance and to the extent to which this is possible, I would encourage you to modify your hours – take shorter lunch times – so you can get out and enjoy a bit of the summer.

Also normally we have a half day for the Stampede parade. Sadly, the Stampede parade is not happening this year, however the University is going to continue to offer the half day and I encourage you to work with your supervisor to identify a half day that you can take off during Stampede week to enjoy a little of the outdoors or whatever will help restore you.

Lastly, I hope you can all schedule some vacation time. I know there might not be the same options in terms of what you can do with it, it is really important that you take some time, after such an incredibly busy time at the University, to try to restore yourself a bit.

I have had the tradition of shoutouts in my videos and I’d like to continue with that. This week I want to give a quick shout out to Continuing Education & Extension, the whole team there.

They’ve been working so hard to creatively support thousands of students and they’re still trying to create new programs for the fall. So I want to let all of you in Continuing Education know that you are an important part of the Mount Royal family! I still have my snow shovel that you gifted me when I arrived at Mount Royal and as a new Calgarian it was the most useful gift that I received.

So in closing, I hope you are all continuing to take good care and be careful and looking after your families. I look forward to a point at which we can welcome everyone back on campus. And in the meantime I will bid you farewell and I’ll talk soon. Bye.