The Board of Governors met on March 13, 2015 at the Trent University Durham campus in Oshawa, continuing the Board’s practice of holding one of its regularly-scheduled meetings at the Durham campus each year.

The Board also held a special luncheon at this meeting and welcomed members of Trent Durham faculty, staff, and student leaders as guests. During lunch, the group enjoyed a presentation by Joe Muldoon, head of Trent University Durham, highlighting recent initiatives and events.

Financial Update and 2015-16 Budget Planning
The Board received a financial update for the current fiscal year 2014-15, noting that revenues and expenditures continue to track to budget. Projections for year-end (April 30, 2015) are for Trent to achieve its balanced budget for this year.

Budget development for 2015-16 is progressing on schedule. To date, budget process, timeline, and analysis of the fiscal environment and key budget drivers have been presented by senior administration and discussed at committee and stakeholder meetings (both academic and administrative) throughout the University. Currently, undergraduate enrollment projections coupled with the continuation of high pension contributions suggest that the University will be facing a budget deficit of between five to seven percent in 2015-16. As a result, budget developers in each unit have been asked to prepare budget proposals for 2015-16 that will address this challenge, for presentation to senior administration in early April 2015. The one-time early retirement incentives recently announced by the University are expected to assist in meeting these targets as well.

The budget development process remains on track for the draft 2015-16 operating budget going to the Finance & Property Committee for review in May 2015, and to the Board for approval at its June 23, 2015 meeting.

Investment & Pension Business

The Board received a quarterly review (as at December 31, 2014) summarizing investment performance in the Pension Fund, Endowment Fund, Endowment Lands Fund, Supplemental Retirement Arrangement (SRA) Fund, and Special Investment Fund. All funds tracked to their respective indexes during this quarter, with no material negative influences.

The Board also approved updated actuarial valuations for the TUFA Pension Plan and SRA, and the OPSEU/Exempt Pension Plan, all as at July 1, 2014. Actuarial valuations are conducted on an annual basis in order to establish the assumptions for the financial statements of the subsequent year, and for budgeting purposes with respect to going-concern and solvency funding requirements.

The University is required by the province to file actuarial valuations every three years with the pension regulators. As this is the filing year for the OPSEU/Exempt Pension Plan, the Board also approved filing the July 1, 2014 valuation for this Plan with the pension regulators.

The chair of the Investment & Pension Committee provided a progress report to the Board with regard to the committee’s deliberations on sustainable investment. The Board noted that a guest column in the Peterborough Examiner on March 12, 2015, contributed by a member of the committee, summarized work to date and the due diligence required on this complex matter. This information has been submitted as well to the Arthur student newspaper on campus. The Board anticipates receiving the committee’s report and recommendations at a meeting later this year.

Academic Initiatives and Structure

The Board welcomed Dr. Bradley White, Canada research chair and director of the Natural Resources DNA Profiling and Forensic Centre at Trent, who gave an informative presentation on the pioneering work and world-class research and application that are being undertaken at the Centre. Dr. White highlighted several projects and the major impact these have on real-life problems such as world food supply, international fraud, infectious bacteria control at hospitals, personalized medicine, etc.

The Board also learned more about Trent’s academic structure and commitment to interdisciplinary with a presentation from Dr. Gary Boire, provost and vice-president academic. Dr. Boire provided an overview of Trent’s academic structure, and noted that the recent introduction of a policy regarding the creation of interdisciplinary schools held many possibilities for new teaching models, research topics, and interactions among students, teachers and researchers.

Next meeting

The Board will hold its next regular meeting on May 8, 2015 at Trent’s Symons campus in Peterborough.