UNB Receives Twenty Million Dollar Donation
The University of New Brunswick announced today a donation in excess of twenty million dollars from its Chancellor, Dr. Richard J. Currie. The announcement may be viewed on the university site or on the Telegraph Journal site. While this is indeed a very generous donation by Dr. Currie and will go a long way toward helping the university cover the cost of the construction of the Richard J. Currie Centre, I do have to wonder if the money could have gone to a better use. Not only Dr. Currie's donation, but all the money that has gone into the Currie Centre so far. My intention is certainly not to criticize Dr. Currie's generous donation, but perhaps that's unavoidable when criticizing how the university's building plan has been executed over the last few years as seen by someone who has no way of having any inside information about the decision-making process.
The cost of the Richard J. Currie Centre is currently projected at
approximately sixty-two million dollars. In the end,
UNB will have a
top-quality research and educational facility for health and wellness.
However, the university will also have numerous other buildings in various
states of disrepair that all would have benefited immensely from being part of
a sixty-two million dollar renovation plan. Just like the university's newest
residence building, an apartment-style residence, the information given to t
hose of us on the "outside" of the decision-making process leaves the
impression that the university would have been better served if the money
spent on the new building had instead been invested in the upkeep of existing
buildings. The new residence building did not, as far as the university
community was made aware of, bring the expected influx of students to campus
living, and in fact a residence was closed, allegedly due to low numbers of
students living in residence. Unfortunately, the residence closed was one of
the best residences on campus.
While I doubt we are in any danger of having an academic or administrative building closed, I do wonder if the lack of greatly-needed upgrades on existing buildings will have a similar effect on overall student enrollment. As I stated previously, I don't want to criticize Dr. Currie's generous donation, but perhaps criticizing the donation is unavoidable when criticizing or questioning the overall building plan that the donation forms a substantial portion of.
