Sudbury.com reporter Heidi Ulrichsen’s ongoing coverage of the Laurentian University insolvency and restructuring has earned her a silver medal in the Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPAs).
To recap briefly, In February 2021, Laurentian University announced it was insolvent and unable to meet its financial obligations, taking the unprecedented step of seeking recourse under the Companies' Creditor Arrangement Act.
It is the first time in Canada that a publicly funded institution has used the mechanism of the CCAA, which is normally reserved for private, for-profit enterprises. As part of that process, Laurentian closed 69 undergraduate and graduate programs and terminated 194 jobs, including 116 faculty positions.
Through her coverage, Ulrichsen, our education reporter, tackled the story admirably. It is a herculean task she undertook. Not only did Ulrichsen need to explain the CCAA process to readers (becoming a de facto expert on the topic as a result), she worked to cover the various wrinkles in the story, wrinkles including a university administration that hid behind the CCAA to withhold information from the public (and Ontario's auditor general), the many meetings and court hearings that are part of the process, and the various faculty and former faculty and students impacted by the university's insolvency.
Over the past two years, Ulrichsen has written dozens and dozens of stories as she endeavoured to chronicle every aspect of the story, providing the necessary context for readers to have a complete understanding of the issues.
“The work she has done, and the quality of that work, is impressive and invaluable to the record, but more importantly, it is invaluable to our readers who have been able to rely on Heidi to take a complex topic with many nuances and render reliable, accurate and balanced coverage,” Sudbury.com editor Mark Gentili said. “The award is well-deserved — Heidi has done exceptional work.”
Ulrichsen was recently interviewed for Behind the Scenes, a Village Media podcast, on her approach to the Laurentian story. You can watch that interview below.
Ulrichsen’s Laurentian coverage won the silver medal in the Best Continuing Coverage of a Story category in the Canadian Online Publishing Awards, held Feb. 9.
Ulrichsen’s silver medal was not the only award Village Media, Sudbury.com’s parent company, earned at the COPAs. For the story “How short term vacation rentals are ruining the neighbourhood”, reporters Marg Bruineman (BarrieToday), Erika Engel (CollingwoodToday) and James Hopkin (SooToday) won a silver medal in the Best Blog/Column/Videocast/Podcast category.
