Demands grow for increased government funding for Laurentian University and the right to education for all.
All sectors of the community in northern Ontario are condemning the
dealings of the Laurentian University administration with the Ontario
Ford government and their declaration of insolvency and application for
protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). This outrage has occurred behind the backs of the
faculty, staff, students and the communities in northern Ontario that are served by the University.
Who Decides? The People Decide!
This CCAA ambush begs the key question facing everyone: Who Decides? The
system of governance at Laurentian and other post-secondary
institutions disempowers those who should be the decision-makers. The
system empowers private entrepreneurs who have no stake in the academic
mission of the institutions, in the
development of the communities and in nation-building. The broad
opposition to this dictate takes many forms but raises the singular
demand for nation-building not nation-wrecking and for this to happen
the people must be empowered to decide.
Laurentian Community
Laurentian
faculty, staff, retirees, students and concerned members of the Sudbury
community are speaking out and finding creative ways of defending their
interests. They have organized a group called Save Our Sudbury --
Sauvons Sudbury (SOS) with a Facebook page of the same name to
advance this work, where information and
comments and expressions of support are posted. SOS organized a virtual
Town Hall meeting on March 3 co-hosted by Jamie West, MPP for Sudbury,
and fourth-year student Katlyn Kotila in which over 500 people
participated. The demand of the meeting was that the province must
provide secure funding for Laurentian.
Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations
In a statement posted on its website on March 9 the Ontario
Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) denounced the
CCAA process writing, "Laurentian University President Robert
Haché's recent claim that the Companies Creditors' Arrangement Act (CCAA)
process provides a constructive format to
engage with stakeholders is not reflected in reality. Instead, the
costly CCAA process reduces students, faculty, and staff to the status
of creditors, from which the university seeks to protect itself."
OCUFA condemned the "unprecedented, inappropriate, and costly
decision to seek CCAA protection" by the University administration
because. it writes, "In this process, faculty, staff, and students are
placed in an untenable position where the university is trying to force
them to take cuts to programs, jobs, and research. Students, faculty,
and
staff should not have to pay the price for the poor governance
practices of an underfunded public institution."
Sault Ste. Marie District Labour Council
The Sault Ste. Marie District Labour Council on March 11 joined with
the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations to hold a
lively rally at the office of the Minister of Colleges and
Universities, Ross Romano in Sault Ste. Marie. Workers from private and
public sector unions rallied to demand that the CCAA process be
stopped and the government provide proper funding for Laurentian.
Laurentian University Faculty Association (LUFA)
LUFA, representing 612 faculty members at Laurentian and its
federated universities: the University of Sudbury, Huntington
University and Thorneloe University, resolutely opposes the actions of
the administration. Charlie Sinclair, counsel for LUFA, said the
association is currently in contract talks with Laurentian and the
union is
concerned that the university will use the CCAA proceedings to
eliminate programs and jobs that it would not be able to achieve
through collective bargaining.
"The university is going to use the insolvency process to
achieve concessions (from the union)," he said. "I just want the
parties to know LUFA is up to the challenge. While we have been
negotiating in good faith, it's not LUFA and its members who put the
university in this position and it's not up to members alone to clean
up the
mess."
Canadian Union of Public Employees
CUPE writes, "The pandemic has exposed chronic underfunding of
universities, which are increasingly reliant on tuition fees and
private sources of funding. While many major universities in urban
centers continue to attract students and private donations, schools in
smaller communities such as Laurentian are struggling in the pandemic
due to declining enrolment rates, exacerbated by the four per cent
reduction in government funding for universities in 2019."
Ontario Branch of the Canadian Federation of Students
The Ontario Branch of the CFS writes, "Laurentian is also known for
its tricultural mandate and, in particular, offering a hub for
Indigenous learning and research. These programs are now faced with
funding cuts that are a major loss to the local communities that
benefit from such research. Northern communities thrive on the
educational
and employment opportunities generated by the University. The news from
Laurentian University needs to be a wake-up call to the provincial
government that Ontario's post-secondary institutions are underfunded
and cannot take any more austerity."
The Fédération québécoise des professeures et
professeurs d'université (FQPPU)
In a statement issued on March 17 the FQPPU, which represents
university faculty in Quebec, "urges the Ontario Minister of Colleges
and Universities, Ross Romano, and the Ford government to work with the
various parties, in particular the Laurentian University Faculty
Association (LUFA), to find solutions to Laurentian's funding
problems. A fundamental aspect of the mission of this institution is to
offer university courses to the Francophone and Indigenous peoples of
Northern Ontario. The maintenance of these programs is vital to the
social and economic development of these communities."
This article was published in
March 26, 2021 - No. 22
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO08223.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
March 11, 2021. Rally at Sault Ste. Marie office of Minister of
Colleges
and Universities.
