The Executive Committee of Memorial University’s Board of Regents met without administration members on Friday, April 28, and issued the following statement on behalf of the Board of Regents:

Memorial University’s Board of Regents has complete confidence in the university’s president and senior administration. The administration has acted appropriately regarding its reporting of financial information to third parties, including the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO).

The board respectfully requests that the Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Labour refrain from making statements that unduly harm the reputation of the university, and its employees, and interfere with the university’s exercise of its autonomy under the Memorial University Act.

The board examines the university’s audited financial statements prepared by the professional financial and administrative services team annually. These statements are audited by an external accounting firm and no areas of concern have been raised by them. The board has approved the financial statements as presented and has confidence in both the team and the processes in place at Memorial.

The Executive Director of CAUBO has confirmed to the board chair via letter today that data provided to it by Memorial’s financial and administrative services team is sound and follows the standards it sets out for reporting by Canadian universities. The letter goes on to say that the use of the data to compare the cost of students at different institutions would not be appropriate.

The board looks forward to considering the 2017-18 university budget proposal that senior administration will bring forward for review at the full meeting of the board on May 11 and expects it to be a balanced and reasonable approach based on the current financial situation of the province.