Having passed much of the years 2021 and 2022 undergoing court-supervised insolvency restructuring, Laurentian University spent 2023 recovering from that challenging period in its history, while still feeling the ricochet effects.
On Nov. 28, 2022, Laurentian University exited insolvency under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (or CCAA) after 22 months.
Following its exit from insolvency, Laurentian is bound by the terms of the plan of arrangement voted upon by its creditors in the fall of 2022, which include rules surrounding how creditors will be paid out, among other items.
Challenging task ahead
Beginning the process of implementing the plan of arrangement is among the challenges faced by Sheila Embleton, Laurentian’s interim president, who started her term Jan. 1, 2023.
Among the obligations under Laurentian’s plan of arrangement is developing and implementing an operational transformation plan and a strategic plan.
Laurentian’s board of governors went on to approve an operational transformation plan this fall, while the university is in the final stages of crafting a new strategic plan with aid from a consultant, with final approval expected in February.
The university’s plan of arrangement also states that university creditors, which include former employees terminated as a result of the insolvency, are to be paid out through the sales of Laurentian land to the province of Ontario.
A pool of cash of up to $53.5 million is to come from those sales, which, as of the end of 2023, had not yet been completed, and thus, most creditors have still not been paid out.
The deadline for Laurentian creditors to be paid is the third anniversary of the plan of arrangement implementation date, so on Nov. 28, 2025.
In June, Laurentian did reveal which properties it plans to sell to the province, as well as what it won’t sell — its greenspace, beloved by many community members.
A group of Sudburians who had fought the idea of Laurentian campus greenspace being sold to pay the university’s debts celebrated when that announcement was made.
The university also announced in 2023 it is selling its John Street president’s home, with the funds generated from the sale to go toward “vital investments to the university’s sustainability.” As of yet, though, the president’s home has not been listed for sale.
Financials, hiring and honorary degrees
In October, there was some good news when it comes to Laurentian’s finances. Laurentian University reported a surplus of $52.6 million for the financial year 2022-2023, a year which the university still spent partially in insolvency.
The university posted a deficit of $66.7 million in 2020-21 and a surplus of $16.8 million in 2021-22.
As it recovers from insolvency, Laurentian has also been on something of a hiring spree during 2023, which includes hires of both administrators and professors. Many employees left LU during the insolvency, on top of those who were terminated due to the CCAA.
While many university graduates crossed the stage and received their degrees at Laurentian in 2023, there was one type of degree that was still not handed out — honorary degrees.
With the COVID-19 pandemic followed closely by Laurentian’s insolvency, three years have now passed since the last honorary degree was conferred by Laurentian.
The university is currently in the process of taking the steps that will be necessary to confer honorary degrees once again, with the goal of doing so in the spring of 2024.
Several university facilities closed
While no longer under creditor protection, the university unfortunately ended 2023 with several of its facilities closed.
The Jeno Tihanyi Pool, which was built in 1972, was shut down in the spring of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and never reopened. In early 2022, the pool started to leak.
With LU now out of insolvency and able to spend money on repairing more than the absolute essentials, Laurentian has been investigating what it would cost to repair and reopen the facility, and earmarked $300,000 in its budget for that purpose.
Laurentian has been providing the community — many of them eager to see the pool to reopen — with regular updates on this file, with the most recent one issued Dec. 20.
A repair options report was to be received imminently as of last month, and Laurentian said it would work with its consultant to evaluate all of the options in January.
In August, Laurentian University’s Students’ General Association (SGA) announced the closure of the on-campus pub, the Pub DownUnder, which the student association operated.
The SGA said the pub’s closure was one of the far-reaching impacts of Laurentian’s insolvency, with the student population having suddenly and dramatically been decreased due to program cuts.
At the same time, the SGA is servicing a multimillion-dollar debt on its student centre, which only opened in 2019.
The Laurentian-owned historic Bell Mansion, occupied for many years by the Art Gallery of Sudbury, has also been closed to the public since October due to structural safety issues.
Gallery curator Demetra Christakos told us she expected to receive an update Dec. 22 from Laurentian’s engineer and contractor on a timeline and plan for moving forward on repairs to the Bell Mansion. We will get an update on this story in the new year.
Under an agreement reached between the art gallery and Laurentian during the CCAA, the gallery, which is supposed to be moving into the city's yet-to-be-realized cultural hub, is only able to occupy the Bell Mansion until May 30, 2025, at which time Laurentian can sell the building.
Federated universities regrouping, reinventing
Meanwhile, the three formerly federated universities operating on Laurentian’s campus, Thorneloe University, Huntington University and the University of Sudbury, continue to regroup and reinvent themselves.
These institutions previously offered courses counting toward Laurentian degrees.
But on April 1, 2021, as part of its insolvency restructuring, Laurentian gave notice it was terminating the federation agreement with these three institutions.
With the severing of ties to the federated universities, Laurentian is now educating all of its students in-house.
Thorneloe is now focusing on its only remaining program — theology — as well as its residence and renting its facilities, which includes a theatre.
Huntington also has a residence, and operates a number of other programs and organizations that don’t involve offering courses toward Laurentian degrees.
Of the three formerly federated universities, the University of Sudbury, or Université de Sudbury, as it has rebranded itself, has been most in the news in 2023, with the province rejecting its proposed French-language university project in June.
At a Franco-Ontarian Day celebration at the Université de Sudbury this fall, proponents vowed to keep fighting for the project.
Laurentian’s next president
As it looks forward to the future, and pulls itself together after the CCAA, Laurentian University named Lynn Wells as its incoming president in December. Wells, who will be Laurentian’s 12th president and vice-chancellor, begins her appointment April 1, 2024.
In an interview with Sudbury.com following the announcement of her appointment, Wells said her most important task upon her arrival in April will be to regain the trust of people at the university following its insolvency.
She wants to give “them a sense of optimism and hope, confidence that things are going to go well, that we can work together as a community and that we can rebuild Laurentian for the next 100 years.”
Asked how she plans to go about that, Wells said it sounds simple, but the way to start is to talk and listen to people in the Laurentian community, “hearing what they’ve been through, but also what their aspirations are for the institution.”
She said the current interim leaders running the university have made progress in stabilizing LU over the past year, and she’ll continue that work.
That stabilizing work includes “building that financial stability, doing the transformation in the institution to make sure it's set up properly, for the future,” said Wells, who’s currently the provost of Brock University.
Wells said she did follow the story of Laurentian’s insolvency, and has read all of the relevant documents and analyses.
While there’s work to be done to help people recover from that period in Laurentian’s history, she said “I think the focus needs to be really on the future of the institution, where it needs to go, what its potential is to serve our students, to develop new programming.”
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.
