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Alternative budget craze hits McGill So-called "alternative budgets" have become a favourite activist strategy for the left. An in-your-face response to politicians who insist that budget-cutting is the only choice, alterna-budgets breathe life into different political choices and directions. It all began with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' Alternative Federal Budget a few years back; last year, a coalition of non-governmental organizations put together the first Alternative Quebec Budget. Now, a coalition of students, faculty and non-academic staff have put together an Alternative McGill Budget. >> As with most alterna-bean-counters, the McGill coalition shed new light on just how "broke" McGill actually is. McGill's endowment fund--all the money donated by wealthy benefactors over the years--now stands at over $500 million. The fund earned over $71 million in interest last year--but the Board of Governors shoveled more than half of it ($38.9 million, to be precise) back into the fund. >> The Alternative Budget's bottom line: if McGill simply took an additional $13 million out of the endowment's interest earnings, it could pay down debt, absorb government cuts and still have extra money for day-to-day operations. --Philip Preville
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