Adegbola Orobiyi-Rhodes | Contributor
Featured image: Increased funds will help rebuild Farquharson, among other buildings. | Courtesy of York University
York is facing a windfall of investment after the governments of Canada and Ontario pledged to pump $47.4 million into research and learning.
The federal government is providing $40.8 million through the Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund and the provincial government will provide $6.6 million. York will invest an additional $65 million, taking total investment to $113 million.
President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri expressed his gratitude to the federal and provincial governments for the investment into York’s research and learning infrastructure.
“This funding will ensure that our researchers, faculty and students have the resources they need to conduct cutting-edge research that will position Canada as a leader in science, health and business innovation,” he said.
The money will help fund key projects such as the conversion of the 48-year-old Farquharson Life Sciences building into a modern academic and research building. It will also fund the building of an environmentally sustainable 67,000-square-foot building linked to the existing Schulich School of Business.
The investment comes as the federal government has set aside $2 billion to fund modernized research and commercialization facilities at Canadian universities, colleges and polytechnics to improve the environmental sustainability of facilities and to promote economic activity across Canada.
Mina Rajabi Paak, president of York University Graduate Students Association, feels that the announcement of such large capital investment by York’s top levels of governance are at odds with the priorities of the York community.
“We are witnessing budget cuts to departments, faculties and university services such as our libraries. The food service workers are currently on a strike because they are asking for their basic rights as workers […] and York could easily help end that strike by increasing the funds it provides to Aramark,” she says.
“The university keeps taking on these very expensive capital projects while there are a lot of issues on Keele and Glendon campuses that can be dealt with using those funds.”
Steven Del Duca, minister for transport and MPP for Vaughan, emphasized the importance of the project in boosting the facilities at York.
“We know that providing access to high-quality education and training facilities is critical to building the highly skilled workforce we need to support good jobs and economic growth for today and tomorrow, and this investment will help us to do exactly that,” he stated.
The improvements will be made over the next two years and it is hoped the investment will create exciting opportunities for the next generation of researchers and students.
With files from Amaar Fatmi
