A Vancouver Community College senior administrator has rejected claims by the New Democratic Party and the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators that his institution is making cuts to English-as-a-second-language programs. Peter Legg, VCC’s vice president of finance and administration, told the Straight that there will be 146 more spaces for “domestic ESL students” in the 2008-09 budget.

In 2007–08, there were 1,897 full-time-equivalent students enrolled in the program; this year, there are 2,043 full-time-equivalent spaces set aside. “There was an increased number of sections and streams that were planned but were not offered,” Legg said. “So it’s a cut to an increase rather than a cut to actuality.”

On March 28, the NDP issued a news release highlighting that VCC faced a $5.8-million deficit at the time, which would force cuts to programs for students. “Two-thirds of those cuts will be directed at ESL programs, with an emphasis on international student offerings,” the NDP stated. Two weeks ago, FPSE president Cindy Oliver claimed in an interview with the Straight that VCC’s ESL programs had been cut.

Last month, VCC announced that it will submit a deficit budget of $1.3 million to the Ministry of Advanced Education after the government announced a 2.6-percent cut in provincial grants to postsecondary institutions. Advanced Education Minister Murray Coell did not respond to the Straight’s request for an interview about how his government will deal with VCC’s request to run an operating deficit this year.

“The 2.6-percent decrease was communicated to us very late in the year—very late in March—and so at that point in time, we didn’t have time to go back and adjust our budget to accommodate that,” Legg said. “What we will have to do is, during the year, look and see what action we can take to manage within the budget.”

Frank Cosco, president of the VCC Faculty Association, told the Straight that ESL instruction has been cut to international visa students but other fee-paying ESL programs are slightly larger than before. Cosco said that, technically, Legg is correct. However, Cosco said that he anticipates there will be “more restrictive scheduling opportunities”, which he claimed could result in less flexibility for students.