KITCHENER — A Wilfrid Laurier University program review that is causing anxiety on campus has nothing to do with cutting costs, even though the university is facing financial difficulties, university president Max Blouw says.

"It's to improve the university, to ask, 'What is it we can do well, what is a priority for us?' and then to also at the same time say, 'This is less priority, this is something we shouldn't do anymore, can't do anymore or need to withdraw from,'" Blouw said Monday.

Recommendations in the report from the 18-month review — called integrated planning and resource management — could affect 18 programs or courses. They could either have funding reduced or be phased out. Nine administrative programs could be affected. A decision on all of the recommendations is expected next month.

"Let me remind you, those are recommendations — those are not decisions," Blouw told The Record's editorial board.

The report recommends 22 per cent of the university's academic and administrative areas get additional resources, 18 per cent get fewer resources and 60 per cent have no change.

Laurier expects "a fairly significant shortfall of revenues over expenditures" in the coming year, and the university will need to make cuts, Blouw said.

But the review was launched before Laurier began looking for places to cut. Although the two are not connected, the combination is causing anxiety on campus, Blouw said.

"It's unfortunately coming at a time when we do have to make cuts, but the process itself has never been about identifying an amount of money and making cuts. It's about making choices," he said.

"I think, as virtually any employer would know, when you are looking at cuts, people get anxious: 'Is that me?' And you combine that then with a priority-setting exercise which — whether we're cutting or adding — is still going to make choices, people get nervous. So there's anxiety from both of those."

One recommendation suggests looking at closing the Robert Langen Art Gallery and realigning resources to support an art curator. The gallery costs Laurier about $100,000 a year.

"It's a recommendation that it might be closed," Blouw said. "I like to think of transformations. How can we celebrate art and the arts without perhaps spending as much as we are?"

Another recommendation calls for the Wilfrid Laurier University Press — which has published scholarly books since 1974 — to find operating funds elsewhere.

"I have a hard time taking revenues and subsidizing a press when I should be putting revenues into a classroom," Blouw said.

"If it were paying for itself, I think I would be quite happy with it. In fact, I know I would be. I think it's a wonderful thing to do."

The amount Laurier gives to the press each year ranges from $260,000 to $500,000.

On Monday, the university senate was deciding which parts of the report to recommend be approved by the board of governors. The board will make a decision next month.

One problem facing Laurier, and all universities, is declining enrolment. Some students are spending an extra year in high school or postponing post-secondary education after graduating from high school.

The number of first-year students this year at Laurier is down about 400 from last year.

"We also have a pension plan that's in significant trouble, so we're paying additional costs over and above what we would normally do," Blouw said.

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Tight finances at the Ontario government, where Laurier gets a large portion of its money, doesn't help matters.

"We saw very clearly that the provincial coffers were going to be very lean for a number of years," Blouw said. "So we knew we had to make choices, and making choices driven by the community I think is far better than having top-down imposition of decisions."

Laurier sociology professor Peter Eglin, in a letter to the editor last month, said Laurier's assets last year exceed its liabilities by $150 million and operational revenues topped expenses by $20 million.

"Where's the crisis?" he asked.

Changes in accounting standards mean some financial statements may not paint an accurate picture, said James Butler, Laurier's vice-president, finance and administration.

The bottom line: Laurier is not swimming in money.

"I think there's a lot of confusion that we've got all this property that if we sell it, we can just deal with all of our financial problems," Butler said.

"Well, that'd be like selling your house to pay your bills. What do you do the next year?"

Blouw reiterated that the review has nothing to do with cutting costs.

"Even if we had more revenue than expenses, we would still be making choices in today's world because we can't do everything," he said.

"The provincial government is clearly saying to all universities that we need to make choices. We need to be very good at some things and leave other things alone."