A Skunkweed By Any Other Name: WLUFA responds to “Empowering Change: Budget 2020/ 2021”
Losing your job is devastating, not empowering.
Universities have been placed in an impossible position by the Ford government’s predations. We know that. But President MacLatchy’s message is an effort to turn the murder of the university into a suicide.
Even more alarming is that her message asks us all to participate willingly in the action.
Making the cuts work by gutting programs, services and destroying morale at Laurier will only play into the Ford government’s hands. And if that must be done, is our administration willing to provide real leadership by cutting away at itself before it comes after us?
And why is COU sitting quietly on the sidelines while the ability for our province to provide post-secondary education – and the ability for Ontario’s young people to access post-secondary education – continues to be eroded?
We need to stand up to the government together: employer, student, staff and faculty, united in resistance. President MacLatchy’s message is a plea to our Laurier community. But being a community doesn’t mean passing the knife from one group to the other.
The government wants to murder us, but we don’t have to make it pretty. Playing into this government’s hands will only allow the next government to think that we’re okay with the new status quo. We need to make it clear that we are not.
It is time for us to fight back. It is time for our Administration to fight back. It is time for COU to say “no”.
It is time to bring the battle to Queen’s Park.