The University of Saskatchewan is making cuts.

In a press release issued Friday afternoon, the university announced its new TransformUS program. The new program is responsible for finding ways to reallocate resources to make up a projected $44.5 million deficit by 2016.

“Let me be clear, our primary motivation in introducing this new process is cost-cutting. This means that some valuable academic and support programs and administrative services will be lost through this initiative,” University president Ilene Busch-Vishniac said in the release.

The TransformUS program will review academic and administrative programs to find areas where spending can be reduced or eliminated.

The university will create two task forces, one focused on academic programs, and another to evaluate support service programs. After consultation with the university community, a set of criteria will be set to be used to measure all U of S programs. The task forces will then spend the rest of 2013 ranking school programming.

In a memo obtained by CTV Saskatoon, Busch-Vishniac writes, “Although we will seek to ensure that the task force participants bring perspectives from all sectors of the institution, they will not be representing any individual unit of constituency. Instead, they will be asked to adopt a ‘university wide prospective’…”.

The memo also explains that programs will be ranked in four or five categories, such as “maintain with enhanced resources”, “maintain with existing resources”, “maintain with reduced resources”, “transform with either increased or reduced resources”, and “eliminate, merge or close”.

A full report will then be completed by Nov. 30, 2013.

“There are important steps we will need to take as a university community to ensure the University of Saskatchewan will continue to thrive and maintain its path as one of Canada’s most distinguished universities,” Busch-Vishniac, said in the release.

“Nevertheless this process is necessary in order to ensure the university as a whole has the resources it needs to thrive and grow to achieve our goals sustainably in the future.”

The program is designed to save $20 to $25 million.