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(March 22, 2001, Gazette)

30 years ago
Statistics Unit established
March 1971 — The Board of Regents has approved the establishment of an Operational Statistics Unit in the Office of the Vice-President. The new unit will undertake special studies for senior academic administrative officers and various committees. It will act as a resource group, gathering and analyzing data and evaluating the likely effects of different courses of action. Arnold Betz, former director of the Computer Centre, is the unit’s new director.

25 years ago
Task Force study launched
March 1976 — University President M.O. Morgan announced a Presidential Task Force to examine the entire spectrum of the university’s activities and to seek ways and means to increase revenues and decrease costs. The chair of the task force is Pro Vice-Chancellor Dr. Leslie Harris. Seven sub-task forces will also examine revenue, academic support services, services to students, administrative support services, research and community
services.

20 years ago
ETV live from the Avalon Mall
March 1981 — Channel 13, Memorial’s Educational Television, went live for the five days of Education Week this month. ETV set up in the Avalon Mall to acquaint the Newfoundland public with the province’s university and specifically with its educational television facility. During twice-a-day live telecasts, hosts Linda Pfeiffer and Fred Hollinghurst interviewed people active at all levels of provincial education and within the university.

15 years ago
Budget provides increase
March 1986 — The provincial budget this month gives Memorial a 9.6 per cent increase in its operating and furnishing/equipment grants, providing a total of $78.9 million for the 1986-87 fiscal year. In addition, the Faculty of Medicine will receive $12,970,000 in grants and subsidies, up from $12,154,000 the previous year. President Leslie Harris said this is a signal of government’s commitment to the importance of post-secondary education in the province, but that members of the university community should not forget that the current year’s budget has been balanced only by withholding about $2 million from Pension Fund contributions.

10 years ago
Cutbacks, fee hikes announced
March 1991 — Memorial will face severe austerity measures, including job elimination, cutbacks in programs and services and increased fees, as a result of the shortfall in provincial government funding for the coming year. President Arthur May said even with the provincial government’s one-year wage freeze, the university still faces an estimated $7 to $8 million shortfall in revenue. The Extension Service will be eliminated and most of its functions discontinued. The Diagnostic and Remedial Unit of the Faculty of Education will be abolished; the Botanical Garden at Oxen Pond will have a reduction in staffing levels; the activities of the Maritime History Archive will be reduced; and direct university funding for the Ocean Sciences Centre will be reduced. In the Faculty of Medicine, which receives separate funding through the provincial Department of Health, cutbacks will result in about 20 positions being eliminated.

Five years ago
Recruitment efforts increased
March 1996 — Memorial wants the best students the province has to offer and it’s getting serious about competing for them. As part of a new focus on recruitment which reflects the highly competitive 90s, Memorial is now offering more than half of its entrance scholarships to high school students two months earlier than usual. Other initiatives include improving information brochures, making a home for Memorial on the World Wide Web, and fostering school spirit among the thousands of students who attend.