Imagine going into debt to build a new house for you and your family.
You hire a sweet-talking building contractor to take care of everything. It’s a difficult project that will take three years, they say. You don’t mind. You’re investing in your family’s future. You uproot your family and move into a rental not far from the building site.
After 18 months, the contractor pulls you aside and tells you that unfortunately they won’t be able to finish the project. The home you paid for cannot be completed. Instead they offer to turn it into … an indoor swimming pool. The building won’t work as a home, but indoor swimming pools are nice too, they assure you.
No, you can’t have your money back.
Yes, you still have to pay back the loan.
Yes, this is legal.
You would be furious, wouldn’t you? This dystopian scenario is so absurd that it could never happen in real life, could it?
Oh, but it can.
The neighbourhood is called Laurentian University, the building contractor is the president and the board of governors, the house is your three-year bachelor degree in one of the 60 killed programs (e.g. Mathematics, Physics, Midwifery, Philosophy, Indigenous Studies, Italian, Political Science), the indoor swimming pool is the “replacement degree” offered to in compensation.
Welcome to the life of hundreds of Laurentian students.
Welcome to the world of the CCAA.
A hatchet job. A farce.
Dr. Jason Lepojärvi
Sudbury