The Laurentian Senate said it has taken a step it hopes will save Thorneloe University’s theatre and motion picture arts program.
The senate passed by majority vote two resolutions aimed at ensuring a future for the theatre and motion picture arts programs they say were dropped by Thorneloe University on April 23.
The first resolution will have the senate reiterate that Thorneloe University’s theatre and motion picture arts programs be allowed to continue until 2026, when it will be reviewed.
The second resolution will propel the senate to enter into negotiations with Laurentian to have the programs and staff at all of federated universities brought into its Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Health, with an immediate freeze on the closing of the theatre and motion picture arts programs.
The motions come after Thorneloe’s board of governors last month announced it would no longer be offering the two programs.
A petition launched last week calling upon Laurentian president Robert Haché and the board of governors to intervene to save the programs has already been signed by more than 1,100 students, faculty, alumni, artists, and community members.
Thorneloe president John Gibaut said his one-year anniversary in this position is June 1. When he first took up his position, he said the last thing he could have imagined was the board having to make this decision.
“This was not a decision to get rid of the arts, nor was it to let down the federation, our students, our colleagues and our employees,” Gibaut said. “There is one reason for this decision, and it’s financial.”
He clarified it isn’t a COVID-19-related finance, and that the issue goes back to funding questions a year ago that started with a decision of the provincial government to reduce funding of tuition fees by 10 per cent.
The senate said in a news release there are 54 full-time students between the two programs, while hundreds of others take these courses as electives. The programs are run by two full-time professors, as well as nine part-time instructors.
And that’s one of the major contributing factors to the decision to close the programs, said Gibaut.
Last year, the board of governors at Laurentian proposed a new funding formula for the federated universities using the way the provincial government was funding Laurentian and all Ontario universities with a weighting on full-time equivalents (FTEs) (the number of students who are enrolled as taking majors in specific programs), Gibaut said. Thorneloe has evolved where it was full course equivalent (FCE, a course that is a full year course or two half year courses) heavy, and FTE light.
Historically, the mission of Thorneloe was to enhance the programs within the faculty of arts, rather than be in competition with them, he said.
In 2018/19, 80 per cent of students in Thorneloe courses were registered in other Laurentian programs.
“That simply meant when the new funding model rolled in, we simply were not prepared for it,” Gibaut said.
Because so few students were majoring in Thorneloe’s programs, the provincial grant decreased, and “tuition alone does not cover the cost of university education,” he said.
What it meant was a 28-per-cent decrease in Thorneloe’s revenue with increased expenditures, of which 80 per cent is on teaching staff. Last June, the board of governors approved a budget with a 30-per-cent deficit, “which is just not sustainable,” he said.
“Last year, we lived on with a degree of austerity, which was verging on counter-productive,” Gibaut said.
Thorneloe University offers four programs — theatre and motion picture arts are single departments, but there’s also women, gender and sexuality studies, ancient studies and religious studies.
The programs with the least FCEs are theatre and motion picture arts, said Gibaut.
Last year, the theatre program dropped 36 per cent in terms of the number of FCEs from the year before, Gibaut said, making it the lowest generator of revenue and the most expensive to maintain.
“That may sound crass, but the mere fact is, we have run out of money,” Gibaut said. “These programs are offered by the federated universities, but to do that, there has to be levels of funding, but at this time, there simply isn’t any.”
Lisa O’Connell is the founding artistic director of Pat the Dog Theatre, which has been producing its Play Smelter Festival every year. She said her organization is usually the first professional contract at a professional wage that students in the theatre program have after they graduate.
“I am not overstating the risk of the closure of these programs to the contribution from Northern Ontario to Canadian culture,” O’Connell said. “This program is an essential building block for the creation, instigation and development of Northern Ontario stories at the very time when our country’s stories are of more interest internationally than ever before.”
Pat the Dog hires annually anywhere between 45 and 57 people for its festival, including students of these programs.
“The closure of this program will have a huge impact on us and the work we can do at a time when we are making great strides because of the stories that exist in Northern Ontario,” she said. “We need these programs for a healthy arts ecology and to ensure Northern Ontario stories take their place in Canadian culture.”
Laurentian senator Tina Sarteretto said the future looks grim, not only for Thorneloe, but for all universities in Ontario. She said the current financial position is an “exceptional situation, and hopefully it’s a one-time situation.”
“Having been in post-secondary education for 30 years, I can tell you the future of programs, the university and the future of post-secondary education, at its best, is uncertain,” Sarteretto said.
“Financially, we were given very specific and complete information about an unprecedented budget challenge. I think it’s relatively easy to sit back and be critical of the decision that’s being made, without necessarily having all of the information.”
Sarteretto said she’s proud of the impassioned debate taking place so far.
“I think it’s really important, and there’s no bigger champion of arts than me, but we have to discuss how we, as individuals, are prepared to contribute to the solutions,” she said.
“If we want to keep all the programs we currently have running, but we need to cut 20 per cent of our funding, is everyone prepared to take a 20-per-cent salary cut? The money isn’t going to fall out of the sky, and everything costs money.”
Even though the degree is granted by Laurentian University, the decision is Thorneloe’s to make, she said.
“To think the status quo is re-attainable is not realistic,” she said. “The status quo is no longer. The future will require sacrifice, innovation, and that this organization be extremely nimble. It’s going to be difficult.”
