The current issue of Alberta Views Magazine (http://www.albertaviews.ab.ca/) contained a short article on Athabasca University with comments from the AUSU President, Debbie Jabbour.

It’s always great to see our university being mentioned by the media and our Students’ Union approached for comments about our school. The downside of this article, however, was that it included some unfortunate wording that may give the impression that AU is in serious trouble financially.

AUSU Council wants to reassure students that we firmly believe AU will be around for a long time to come. The university’s past performance as a stable, highly reputable academic institution, and its plans for continued growth and recognition across Canada and beyond make us completely confident in AU’s viability and longevity. That’s why we’ve invested our education dollars in Athabasca University, and will continue to do so.

With the Alberta government’s funding to universities not being high enough to cover the costs of inflation, all institutions in the province suffer from some degree of under-funding. AU is not alone in this situation.

However, with AU’s different educational structure it doesn’t always fit as well into the government-funding framework, as do physical-based institutions. This point was the intent behind the AUSU President’s statement in the magazine article. AUSU Council apologizes for any misconception about our university that may have resulted from the article.