This spring the Manitoba government introduced Bill 32 which is designed to increase dramatically the power of the politicians over the internal functioning of Manitoba's universities. The government is doing this by abolishing the University Grants Commission and creating a new Council on Post-Secondary Education which will be much more under the thumb of the Minister of Education and Training than its predecessor. The issue will be debated in the Manitoba legislature this fall.

The Council will be composed of eleven persons appointed by the Minister. The former University Grants Commission was mandated to assure that adequate post-secondary educational resources of the type normally provided by universities and colleges were available to the citizens of the province. That provision has been dropped as is the requirement to study the needs of the province for post- secondary education in terms of kind, quality and quantity. These changes will allow the government to reduce accessibility.

The University Grants Commission was basically restricted to financial matters. The new Council will "plan and co-ordinate the development of a post-secondary education system in the province. In carrying out its mandate, the council shall operate within a framework of accountability established by the minister." In other words the Minister can order specifically political rather than academic decisions and the Council must carry out his or her orders.

The previous act recognized that the University Grants Commission should not interfere with the basic right of a university to formulate academic policies and standards. The new legislation eliminates the phrase "academic policies."

To underline this change, the new legislation tells the Council that "within a framework established by the Minister" it shall determine priorities and allocate funding not just to universities and colleges but to programs within them. In other words the Minister and his or her political appointees can determine the programs offered by the university. Just to make it plain how sweeping this power is, program of study is defined to mean any group of credit courses that leads to a degree, diploma or certificate. Finally, in case it has forgotten anything, the cabinet "may make such regulations respecting any matter or thing" that it "considers necessary or advisable to carry out the intent and purpose of this Act."

The government through its Council will now determine the criteria for judging the work of professors.

Universities must get approval from the Council for any reduction or expansion of a program, service or facility and the Council, if it agrees, may impose any terms and conditions it wishes. Reduction is defined to include any reduction in student numbers.

Grants commissions were originally proposed as buffers between the government and the universities and colleges. "The Council created by Bill 32," said Donald Savage, the Executive Director of CAUT, "is in no serious sense a buffer but is merely the tool of the government þ a device to allow the Minister to escape responsibility for the draconian actions planned by her government.

"The community should realize that the government proposals are a march back to the nineteenth century in English Canada when politicians appointed the faculty and ensured that the universities would be subject to political patronage," he said.

The government has planned this takeover over a number of years. In 1992 it appointed a review commission chaired by a former Conservative Premier, Duff Roblin, which called for a diminution of the role of faculty in university governance; a restructuring of teaching, research and scholarship so that these would be linked to the needs of Manitoba as defined by the government; and a reduction in the funding of universities in favour of distance education and community colleges.

The government responded favourably and called on the universities to specialize in areas of interest to it such as tourism, health care, aerospace, telecommunications, environmental industries and agri-food processing. It also called on them to eliminate courses with low enrolment and end duplication. It indicated that it was no longer interested in maintaining the traditional role of faculty in teaching, research and service. Subsequently the Minister informed a delegation from the Manitoba Organization of Faculty Associations (MOFA) that he intended to cut funds, increase fees, reduce enrolments, and make the universities subject to the market. The current Minister has told MOFA that she intends to carry out the mandate of her predecessor.

"It is remarkable," said Prof. William Bruneau, the President of CAUT, "that conservative governments such as that in Manitoba preach a doctrine of reducing government and getting it off the backs of people and then develop legislation to allow the politicians and bureaucrats to micromanage the universities."

The Manitoba Organization of Faculty Associations, which represents the faculty associations in the four universities in the province, is orchestrating resistance to this legislation. It has proposed alternative reforms which among other matters would restructure the Council so that it would have equal numbers of government appointees and elected representatives of the post- secondary institutions. The President of CAUT has assured the Manitoba organization of national support in its fight.