On June 23, York held a virtual Budget Information Session. Lasting just under an hour, the meeting was moderated by Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Dr. Alice MacLachlan, with speakers including Interim President and Vice-Chancellor Lisa Philipps, Interim Provost and Vice-President Academic Laina Bay-Cheng, and Vice-President Finance and Administration Narin Kishinchandani. The session was billed as “a community of faculty, students, staff, retirees, alumni, and volunteers committed to academic freedom, social justice, accessible education, and collegial self-governance.”
Kishinchandani spoke of the four financial categories that the Ontario government assigns to universities: No Action, Low Action, Medium Action, and High Action. No Action entails no financial concerns, Low Action entails sound financial health, Medium Action entails identified financial concerns, and High Action entails significant financial concerns. The provincial government uses liquidity, sustainability, performance, and credit rating to decide these categories. While York has acceptable liquidity, sustainability, and credit rating parameters according to Kishinchandani, the university has been deemed High Action due to an ongoing operating deficit.
According to Kishinchandani, the High Action label results from the compounding of multiple factors: a decline in international tuition, the large student population and corresponding size of facilities, historic provincial underfunding, faculty-level structural deficits, and reduced flexibility due to debt and “capital commitments.” Purportedly, York’s deficit is narrowing year by year, and the institution projects a $20.1 million surplus by the 2028-2029 financial term, but currently there is a deficit. The meeting also detailed some of the government policy changes that have affected York’s financial standing over the past year. The effects of the federal international student cap were first felt in June 2025, followed by a tuition freeze and inflation in the fall, and a provincial international students cap as the year drew to a close. Feb. 2026 saw Queen’s Park pass the widely controversial OSAP changes, coupled with the announcement of a $6.4 billion provincial funding package and end to the seven-year tuition freeze as a result of the Ontario Budget 2026, which occurred in March 2026. This $6.4 billion went to post-secondary institutions, applied over the next four years, while also capping tuition at two per cent annually.
Bay-Cheng discussed how 2025-26 was the best year for Keele and Glendon undergrad enrollment since 2021, with York University performing second to Carleton in terms of acceptances after an increase of 19.2 per cent. Conversely, Markham campus enrollment failed to meet projections, with a shortfall of nine domestic students. Bay-Cheng also highlighted the plans for York’s School of Medicine, which gained Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools (CACMS) candidacy status in June and will undergo CACMS accreditation visits in the fall of 2026. Planned actions were also discussed, including increased international undergrad recruitment, ensuring the Markham campus maintains an upward trajectory, and optimizing scholarships/bursaries for students in need following the OSAP changes.
When asked about Markham by Excalibur, students offered differing opinions. A third-year Computer Science student commented how the campus “looks great,” and that “the Makerspace there is awesome,” while third-year Political Science major Jordan Parsalidis was more critical, observing that “the main programs that operate there are for finance and tech” as opposed to liberal arts, which he says “shows where the university’s priorities lie.”
Towards the end of the meeting, Dean MacLachlan opened the floor for questions on York’s future financial plans. One attendee asked about cuts to positions or budget, which were not mentioned in the meeting, to which Kishinchandani mentioned that “there will be some realignments to make sure that we do what is right in terms of optimizing our services to students.” Another attendee inquired as to why the University has not cut salaries for managers, especially those on the Sunshine List, over frontline staff and faculty. The Sunshine List is an annual list released by the province documenting public sector employees with salaries over $100,000. Neither Kishinchandani nor Bay-Cheng directly addressed the question of salary raises, but Philipps mentioned transparent data showing a drop in management employees over the last few years. Finally, an attendee asked about the Glendon campus proposal following its deficit and faculty agreement. Bay-Cheng stated that there was nothing of Glendon or its future written into the budget as it is “premature.”
Overall, the Budget Information Session attempted to calm concerns and make clear that York’s administration has a plan in motion, as it is currently “in the woods” with an ongoing operating deficit. However, despite plans for the next few years, whether or not the university will find its way out of these woods remains to be seen.
