Laurentian University s restructuring trumps professors collective agreement
Laurentian University professors who lost their jobs in restructuring are facing a future with few prospects and little support.
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Professor says she will lose her salary, health benefits and won t get any severance after 15 years
CBC News ·
Posted: Apr 26, 2021 7:00 AM ET | Last Updated: April 26
Christine Sansolone is among the dozens of Laurentian University professors who lost their jobs as the school restructures to get out of its financially insolvent state.(Laurentian University)
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Third-year Laurentian University midwifery student Abigail Roseborough of Kenora had been scheduled to start a placement in Thunder Bay next Monday.
However, because Laurentian is restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, the School of Midwifery is being cut, so her placement is gone. She is now looking to switch to a midwifery program at McMaster in Hamilton or Ryerson in Toronto.
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Try refreshing your browser. Laurentian cuts will affect health care in the North: NDP Back to video
“Nobody in our faculty expected our program would be cut during a global pandemic where the demand for midwives, especially in the North, is there,” the Indigenous student said during a Zoom press conference Monday. “These cuts came out of nowhere and they left so many Indigenous students feeling deflated … Laurentian made a promise to us – to educate us, to protect us and we wouldn’t be affected.”
New Democrats zoom in on Laurentian University and call for a moratorium on restructuring
Federal and provincial New Democrat politicians promised support and some action for the Laurentian community in a Zoom town hall-style meeting Saturday- less than a week before the university heads back to court to hear whether its restructuring plan will be able to continue.
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Professors who devoted their careers to developing the local university are demanding an inquiry as to how the mess occurred, as well as the enactment of a plan to reverse the devastation.
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Try refreshing your browser. Retired LU profs demand inquiry Back to video
Approximately 200 former professors and senior librarians at Laurentian University have retired with dignity and pride in the University they put their lives and careers into building.
All came here from outside the Sudbury area after being students themselves at universities as they developed the skills and background knowledge to become experts in a specialized discipline. They came from across Canada and the world, and after devoting at least 11 years of their lives as university students themselves, they chose to accept a position at Laurentian University.
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The senate standing committee on official languages has adopted a motion on post-secondary schools serving French-speaking communities in Canada. The motion aims to stabilize funding and secure a strong future for such institutions.
Moved by Franco-Ontarian Senator Lucie Moncion, the motion urged the federal government to work with its provincial and territorial counterparts to create an emergency assistance fund for post-secondary institutions that serve minority-language communities and whose survival is threatened by significant financial insecurity.
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Try refreshing your browser. Laurentian crisis inspires senate motion Back to video
Committee members said they adopted the motion on April 19 in large part because of the financial trouble institutions like Laurentian University are facing.