In a surprising move, Laurentian University has filed for court protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) due to financial challenges it is facing as a result of reckless administrative decisions and the erosion of public university funding.
Laurentian University is a public institution, not a private sector corporation. As such, it is the responsibility of government to ensure sustainable operating funding. This funding would put an immediate end to Laurentian’s financial challenges and prevent inappropriate and costly legal proceedings.
Together, we need to put pressure on both the provincial and federal governments to provide Laurentian with the funding it needs, not just to survive for a few more months, but to secure the public institution’s long-term future.
Make your voice heard: Click here to send a letter demanding the provincial and federal governments intervene to protect this vital public institution.
The faculty of Laurentian University deserve to continue their positions in a university that is not facing bankruptcy. And Laurentian students deserve the opportunity to finish the programs they have been working towards without facing a future where they may not be able to graduate. Laurentian MUST receive public funding to secure its future–the Ontario and Federal governments MUST act on this.
all students must be permitted to graduate
A thorough review of the accounting practices must be completed and individuals in positions of authority who mismanaged funds should be penalized appropriately. Faculty, students, and staff should not be bearing the burden for others’ mismanagement. Government bodies should intervene to ensure due process and to support a return to fiscal viability for the institution.
I am going to be directly impacted if Laurentian University is not saved. Although I am an employee in University of Alberta, my funding comes from a grant which is awarded to Laurentian.
I support the points raised by others and absolutely- “Faculty, students, and staff should not be bearing the burden for others’ mismanagement. Government bodies should intervene to ensure due process and to support a return to fiscal viability for the institution.”
The situation at Laurentian is a sign of management and government failure. Both levels need to take responsibility and actually deal with the problems they created, and not blame or take it out on staff and faculty.
With five members of Laurentian’s board of governors appointed by the provincial government, the government of Ontario must have been complicit or highly negligent in these financial difficulties. The provincial government should step-in to fix problems that they helped cause. Universities are a public good, and an especially critical public good in northern communities.