The faculty terminations are effective April 30th. Philosophers Brett Buchanan and Gillian Crozier are among those who have publicly shared that they are among the faculty to be laid off.
100 professors at Laurentian received termination notices today, and 58 undergraduate programs and 11 graduate programs will cease, the CBC reports. In addition to philosophy, programs in mathematics, physics, political science, anthropology, environmental science and studies, and many other fields were cut. The full list of canceled programs is here.
(via Ben Hale)
The university is effectively declaring bankruptcy, seeking protection from creditors as it restructures itself. The Globe and Mail reports:
Laurentian declared insolvency in February just as it was on the verge of being unable to meet payroll. It has debts of nearly 0-million from a building spree that didn’t produce enrolment gains and it ran deficits in the range of -million to -million a year for several years, according to its court filings. It also spent millions in grants earmarked for research to keep the lights on, owing in part to the practice of having just one bank account where incoming funds from various sources were mixed. [emphasis added]
Laurentian University’s president and vice-chancellor is Robert Haché; the members of the Board of Governors are listed here. Other information about the Laurentian University administration can be found here.
Following years of extraordinary mismanagement by administrators, Laurentian University is attempting to address its current financial insolvency by eliminating a shocking number of academic programs and tenured positions. The Department of Philosophy and several of its faculty are among those slated for elimination.
[“Here’s what’s left of the Faculty of the Arts at Laurentian University” – Christian Pelletier]
The Globe and Mail provides the background against which the cuts are taking place:
Laurentian has made clear it intends to reduce teaching costs through the insolvency process, rather than through the financial exigency clause in its collective agreements. Faculty say they tried to negotiate with the university for months before the insolvency was triggered, but the university refused.
It’s the first time a publicly funded university in Canada has used a court process normally reserved for private corporations, the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, which gives the court wide latitude to achieve a settlement. The Laurentian Faculty Association, which represents about 380 professors at Laurentian and its federated universities [Sudbury, Huntington and Thorneloe Universities; see here], has criticized the use of this court process for a public institution. The provincial government has so far refused to heed calls to step in to help, despite protests in Sudbury…
