The chair of Laurentian University’s board of governors said an announcement is coming soon as to exactly who the university’s new interim leaders will be.
Laurentian is currently operating under the leadership of Tammy Eger, who board chair Jeff Bangs quipped is LU’s “interim interim” president.
Earlier this fall, Eger, LU’s vice-president, research, stepped into the interim role until a longer-term interim appointment could be announced.
Céline Larivière, LU’s dean of education and health, is doing much the same thing as interim provost until a longer-term appointment can be made for that role.
Both Laurentian’s now former president, Robert Haché, and its former provost, Marie-Josée Berger, were terminated on a “without cause” basis by LU’s board earlier this fall.
Their departure was one of the conditions of Laurentian’s plan of arrangement, which sets out a roadmap to pay back LU’s creditors after the university went through court-supervised insolvency restructuring for the past 22 months, a status it finally exited on Nov. 28.
Bangs said at the Dec. 2 board of governors meeting that he had hoped to be able to announce “the arrival of a new interim president and interim provost.”
However, he said the announcement will be coming within “days, not weeks.”
At a speech presented to the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce in November, Bangs said he expects the interim Laurentian leaders will be in place throughout 2023. It’s hoped that in 2024, new leaders will be in place in those positions.
During the Dec. 2 board of governors meeting, Bangs shared his thanks with Eger for her leadership during the transition period at Laurentian this fall, and said “help is on the way.”
“We'll be sharing more broadly with the community who those people are very soon,” he said.
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s associate content editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.
