University ‘won’t get another nickel from me’

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This article was published 04/11/2011 (5468 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A longtime Brandon University alumni donor has decided to donate elsewhere because of the labour dispute between administration and the faculty and the cancellation of homecoming festivities in October.

Hugh Halliday, a class of 1961 graduate and military historian from Orleans, Ont., said he had planned to attend Homecoming and actually arrived in Brandon on the day Oct. 13, only to learn of the cancellation of the annual alumni event when checking in to his hotel.

“Brandon University won’t get another nickel from me,” Halliday, 71, said. “I will divert my money to other institutions or museums, but not to Brandon University.”

Halliday’s breaking point came after a Sept. 30 phone call from Brandon University’s alumni affairs department, informing him that his homecoming registration was in order. He was also requested to recruit others from the Class of ’61 to make the trip to the Wheat City.

“I go back to three years ago when the financial system was starting to melt down,” Halliday said. “There was a financial advisor on American television that was telling people to buy stock of more dodgy banks. He was preaching this right up to 24 hours before the bank collapsed. That was rather like the alumni association asking me to get more people to come when they must have realized in 13 days there would be a labour problem. I was personally offended by that call on Sept. 30 as it was disingenuous.”

Halliday said the two lengthy labour disputes has diminished his view of Brandon University.

“Given this is the second strike in three years, I personally consider (BU) a disfunctional institution,” Halliday said. “Any educational institution that has prolonged twice, has a contract that expires in May and they can’t come to a deal between May and October? That’s clearly bad management on both sides. I don’t know who to blame.”

Halliday is likely one of several donors turned off by the labour disruption, the second in three years.

At a Brandon University Faculty Association public meeting on Tuesday, Dick McDonald, who identified himself as a BU fundraiser, said there were people who declined to donate to university fundraising programs because of the labour dispute.

“I’ve had several people say to me that I’m not going to donate any money to Brandon University under the circumstances they are in now,” McDonald said.

He cited a Vancouver man, who had planned to come to homecoming, “may never come back now with millions of dollars in donations.”

Brandon University associate vice-president (external) Vicki Klassen said there has been no “significant” decrease in donations to the university, though the timing of fundraising campaigns has been altered because of the faculty strike.

“We have made the decision to delay, and change timing on initiatives and we’ve spent some time working on other ways of development,” McDonald said.

“We are still active in the community trying to do things we need to, to raise funds for the university.”

Klassen declined to specify what she considered a significant decrease in fundraising.

“We are on target for meeting our annual fundraising targets,” Klassen said.

While some reconsider their philanthropic options, students have started to demand tuition rebates, said Jocelyn Young, a first-year science student who is camped out in one of the tents in the Brandon University courtyard in protest to the disruption of classes.

“They should give us our money back because the university is starting to view themselves as a business and if that’s so, I’m a customer and I’m not getting the product I paid for,” Young said.

“If they try to finish the term, I won’t get it to the quality that I paid for. If we want to drop the term, we should get our full money back. If we don’t want to drop the term, we should get a percentage of it back.”

As for Halliday, it doesn’t matter if Homecoming is rescheduled. He’s not coming, and his chequebook will be off limits to BU as well.

“I am not prepared to sacrifice more time, money and curling games for another attempt at my sentimental journey,” Halliday said.

“If (BU) were to ask me to reconsider, I would reply that they have obviously mistaken me for someone who gives a damn.”

» kborkowsky@brandonsun.com