Laurentian: What Can We Do?
A panel and open discussion on what is happening at Laurentian, why we should be concerned, and what we can do about it as members of other university communities
This Friday April 16 at 2 p.m. EDT via Zoom (register here)
On Monday, Laurentian University laid off over one-third of its faculty members and cut almost 70academic programs, including programs that support Laurentian’s unique tricultural mandate and directly serve the region’s Francophone, Indigenous, working class, and rural communities.
The gutting of Laurentian University will be devastating for its students, faculty, and staff, for the city of Sudbury, and for northern Ontario, and it sets very dangerous precedents for what can happen at other universities in the province and beyond.
This panel will discuss what happened at Laurentian, situating it in the context of the broader reframing and restructuring of public research and education over the past several decades, which has touched all of our universities and threatens to fundamentally change the work we do.
Following the panel, we will have an open discussion on what we as grassroots members of other university communities can do to support the Laurentian community in its fight against this restructuring.
Featuring (confirmed to date):
Nadia Verrelli, Associate Professor of Political Science at Laurentian
Reuben Roth, Associate Professor in the Workplace and Labour Studies program in Laurentian’s School for Northern and Community Studies
Jennifer Johnson, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Thorneloe University at Laurentian
With additional comments from:
Honor Brabazon, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo
Alan Sears, Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Ryerson University
Endorsed by (to date):
Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association
Ontario College of Art and Design Faculty Association