For the new Laurentian University board and administration to be trusted in the academic world as well as in Sudbury, they need to undertake at least the following:
- Distance themselves from the previous board leaders who legitimized many questionable activities by the previous administrations. The present board must state publicly that the debts undertaken for the building spree were irrational risks, that the co-mingling of operational and entrusted funds (charitable donation and research accounts) will not recur, that the gifts and bonuses to administrators were unethical and will not be repeated. This declaration is necessary to begin to clear the air from the Auditor General’s findings.
- Apologize to the faculty and staff who lost jobs for no good reason except mismanagement and seek to provide full compensation. Otherwise Laurentian will remain marked as a university not caring about academic careers and social justice. The university will have difficulty recruiting high-level researchers and teachers.
- State explicitly to the Sudbury community that the monies donated by the community to support student scholarships and bursaries will be restored from the gains of having reduced staff and faculty. An explicit statement is needed that the funds collected in the community and held in trust will be available for students in the programs identified in the donations and bequests. Unless that is done, the ethnic groups, labour organizations and service clubs as well as individuals will put their monies elsewhere.
- State explicitly that Laurentian will be a full fledged university with as many programs in the cultural realm as possible, and not simply have resources directed at mining or business-related activities and education. Otherwise the danger exists of having a technical college without offering a wide range of educational opportunities to the community, and more young people will leave the north. Remember that though Laurentian has excellence in a few aspects of mining research, it ranks low on the international scale of universities with mining programs and is sixth or last in Canada (after Queens, McGill, UBC, Alberta, Toronto).
A step has been taken in the right direction in that publicity now coming from the university is again emphasizing what professors and students do and achieve, unlike during the (former Laurentian University president) Dominic Giroux era, focusing on administrators and their supposed or self-proclaimed greatness and successes, while misleading the public on issues such as deficits.
Dieter K. Buse, professor emeritus, history, Laurentian University
Greater Sudbury