CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY TEACHERS
Laurentian crisis: A wakeup call to change legislation

The crisis rocking Laurentian University for nearly two years has been a tire fire. It just seems to keep on burning.

Even as the university exited insolvency protection in November, more revelations of mismanagement and misrepresentation have emerged.

First, the Auditor General of Ontario, Bonnie Lysyk, detailed how for over a decade ill-conceived capital expansions, administrative bloat, and weak governance oversight led to the financial crisis.

Contrary to the administration's narrative, Lysyk's wide-sweeping review found that academic salaries didn't contribute to the financial woes. In fact, salaries were lower than those of comparable universities. Moreover, the university's academic programs, rather than draining resources, "positively contributed to the University, helping to pay the growing costs of debt, senior administration and special advisors."

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