The person charged with leading Vancouver Island University for the next two years wants to guide the Nanaimo-based post-secondary out of its current financial quagmire.
Dennis Johnson was named VIU's interim president and vice-chancellor in June, taking over from predecessor Deborah Saucier for a term that will last up to two years.
With the university making program cuts in the past few years and dealing with a multi-million-dollar deficit, Johnson said that the idea during his term is to "try to stabilize and make VIU sustainable again."
Changes to the international student study permit program has led to smaller numbers of students from abroad, which has led to issues not only for VIU, but many of its peer institutions as well, according to Johnson. VIU must adjust to the new reality, he said.
"Certainly advocating [for change], that's happening, the lobbying is happening," said Johnson. "The provincial governments are all talking to the federal government about the impacts of the policy changes – that's not so much my role right now … international student numbers have dropped significantly. The revenue that comes with that has dropped significantly, and so we have to adjust our spending … adjust our class sizes and our offerings without those large international numbers."
Opinions vary on whether post-secondary institutions were overly reliant on international student tuition, but the president said hindsight is 20/20.
"I think decisions were made based on the reality of the time, and certainly there seemed to be no end in sight for international students," Johnson said. "The changes were pretty abrupt … there was no sort of ramp up and ramp down. We had very rapid growth in the last few years, followed by a very rapid decline. So over-reliant? I think a lot of institutions just matched their activity to what they saw as the demand at the time."
In terms of solutions, Johnson said there is no "big bang fix" or "magic wand" for VIU's current financial situation, there is only "a disciplined, comprehensive approach" to looking at how VIU spends its money. New revenue streams are being examined as well.
"The main opportunity in any university like VIU is to put more students in classrooms [to increase] tuition revenue, but we're also looking at all of the things we spend money on," he said. "For example, we have a very large vehicle fleet … Can we reduce it? The insurance costs, maintenance, gas, etc. We'll be doing comprehensive reviews."
Asked about any other potential program or staffing cuts, Johnson said reviews must be conducted first and will be done over the coming months.
"Before we make any further decisions, we're going to take this comprehensive, evidence-informed approach,” said the president. "Everything will be reviewed and certainly we'll be looking at data and numbers, demand, labour market alignment, all of that. But right now, students that are [learning], their programs are running and we don't want to impact current students."
Something else that has caught Johnson's attention at his new workplace is the "beautiful campus," but he added that the university has a lot of other things going for it besides the view.
"As far as the educational aspect … I've heard over and over again that's positive, despite all the concerns, is what a great educational experience that is provided at VIU," he said. "So I think that's a core we can really build on."
