A critical situation
Unprecedented cuts
Last December, the Quebec government imposed funding cuts of unprecedented severity on Quebec universities—$250 million between December 2012 and April 2014—on top of the cancellation of tuition increases. Unless the cuts are reversed, McGill's deficit could rise to more than $30 million for 2012-13 and $40 million in 2013-2014, triggering one of the most difficult financial crises we have ever faced.
McGill’s mission and the academic excellence for which we are known around the world will continue to be our focus and our guide. In these tough times, we will stay the course with the successful academic programs we offer, and, where necessary, develop new means to support our students and professors. The months ahead will be difficult for everyone. McGill’s strength stems from the contributions of our talented faculty, students and administrative and support staff. We know that the proposed measures resulting from the budget cuts will affect the lives and work of many, and we are sorry that these measures, though necessary, will cause distress for members in our community. We must do what is necessary to ensure McGill’s strengths going forward. McGill has faced cuts and adversity before and has remained, against all odds, a special place to study and work, and a fine institution.
We have a very special community here and we want to make sure that we preserve it.
This website provides a fuller explanation of our situation, including a timeline of events leading up to this point and a range of facts and figures that illustrate the severity of this situation. As the situation evolves, this site will also be the primary source for information related to budget cuts at McGill.
What you can do
Join the conversation
As our McGill community works through an extremely difficult decision-making process, we invite you to contribute your questions and concerns to the dialogue, either on McGill's Red Blog or by email at budgetcuts [at] mcgill [dot] ca. Your comments will be posted on this site, and will help push the conversation forward.
Stand up for higher education
We also invite you to take an active role in countering the cuts—through letter-writing, phone calls to your MNA and Premier Marois, word of mouth and more. The magnitude of these cuts means that, if the Quebec government does not change course, it will not be business as usual at McGill—we will all feel the impact. In this urgent situation, McGill is calling on all students, staff, faculty, alumni and parents to join us in the fight to preserve the quality of McGill education and innovation.
