Letter to Minister shows cuts are caused by chronic underfunding says faculty: This letter demonstrates a government-appointed College board agreeing with what faculty throughout the province have been saying about chronic underfunding," said Cindy Oliver, President of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators. Oliver was commenting on a letter sent by the Chair of the VCC Board, Mark Stock, to Murray Coell, Minister of Advanced Education. In the letter, the Chair notes that without additional government funding, VCC now has to make program cuts throughout the institution totaling almost 400 FTE student spaces, about 1000 individual students. "The letter certainly confirms the funding problems that we have highlighted in the past and which will be made only worse if the Minister goes through with his plan to cut funding by a further 2.6%, Oliver concluded."

Students are glad the VCC Board of Governors has finally publicly admitted there is a problem with how the BC Government funds VCC," said Vijay Krisnan, Chairperson of the Students' Unions of VCC. "The chronic underfunding and the 2.6% cut by Minister Murray Coell are the direct cause of the ongoing cutbacks we're seeing at VCC and other colleges and universities around BC. We will continue to push the Board to work with students, faculty, and support staff to demand the funding VCC desperately needs to offer classes and keep the lights on," Krisan added.

The letter clearly highlights the long term funding problems that VCC has been dealing with," said VCC Faculty Association President Frank Cosco. "It's very troubling that the board chair is mentioning further cuts next year, but I'm pleased to see this Board take a stand and be public about the damage being done to VCC. It's long overdue for public Boards like VCC to act in the interest of the community in which they operate rather than march to the beat of a drum in the Premier's Office," Cosco concluded. See letter from VCC Board Chair, Mark Stock to Minister Murray Coell here.