Unions call for administration to merge at Laurentian University and 3 federates

University professors in Sudbury say thousands of dollars, if not millions, are being wasted on administrators, instead of in the classroom.

This is because of the four separate, but connected universities: Laurentian, Thorneloe, Huntington and the University of Sudbury.

All the students receive Laurentian degrees, but the other three universities each have their own buildings, professors, presidents, boards of directors and budget.

"When you look at the money that we spent on paying the administration it is just crazy," says Birgit Pianosi, a gerontology professor at Huntington.

"I think it is really a waste of money."

Huntington has a payroll of about $1.3 million, $525,000 or about 40 per cent, of which goes to administrators instead of professors.

Pianosi is especially puzzled by Huntington president Kevin McCormick getting paid $245,000 to oversee a handful of staff, while Laurentian president Dominic Giroux is paid $301,000 to lead an institution with thousands of students and hundreds of professors.

Interview requests were forwarded to Huntington board chair Mary-Liz Warwick who praised McCormick for the work he has done for the university.

As for the federated model, she does believe that it costs more.

"I do, but I also think there's a lot of benefit to having this system," says Warwick, citing smaller class sizes and a more intimate community feel.

Members of the Laurentian University Faculty Association agree with that, but are concerned about the cost of keeping the model.

"What really causes problems is fiscal responsibility," says Laurentian University professor and union executive member Jean-Charles Cachon.

He says the federates like the University of Sudbury "seems to always be wanting to create the illusion that it's a fully independent instiution."

Cachon is concerned that Laurentian has become an example of the type of "top heavy type of institution" that is becoming very common in post-secondary education. 

"Obviously there are other priorities than what's happening in the classroom. It's often 'Well, we spent $60 million you should be happy,'" says Cachon.

University of Sudbury professor and union steward Chris Duncanson-Hales fears that the current level of spending will lead to a financial scandal that could force change on the campus.

"Personally I think the federates need to come together and work on this now or at some point we are going to get that shock and we're going to lose control at that point," says Duncanson-Hales, who says due to different union contracts, he gets paid more to teach a class at Laurentian than U of S.

But professors at the federated universities are worried that if they were simply merged into Laurentian, that their focus on humanities programs and traditional academic teaching would be lost in favour of classes geared to job training and designed to recruit students.

"It gives us a special identity and I think it enables us to develop an identity that would attract students," Thorneloe University professor and union steward Louis L'Allier says of the federated model.

"My own department, ancient studies, would not exist."

Laurentian president Dominic Giroux agrees that it costs more, but doesn't think that's a good enough reason to make a change.

"As outgoing president of Laurentian University, it's not something I would advocate for. It works well. And quite frankly I think any changes to the federation would be a distraction," says Giroux, who leaves the university later this year to head up the Sudbury hospital Health Sciences North.

"If we were to reinvent the system as a whole today, there are many things that would be different. Not sure there would be four institutions in Sudbury for university programming."

When Giroux leaves Laurentian later this year, his temporary replacement will be Pierre Zundel, the former president of the University of Sudbury.

Josee Forest-Niesing, the current chair of the board at the University of Sudbury, says the discussion of the federates should not just be about dollars and cents.

"I think some of the main opponents to the federated model they stop at the financials without really considering what you're getting for that." she says.

"It's like French language services, are they more expensive? There is a cost associated to it. But dos that in and of itself make it an initiative that's not worthwhile? I would argue vehemently that that's not the case. The value is there, that's difficult to quantify."

Thorneloe University president Robert Derrenbacker is the one of the four presidents on campus who feels that the federated model might not actually be more expensive for taxpayers and students than if the three smaller universities were officially part of Laurentian.

But he does argue that humanities education would take a hit if that happened.

"I think there'd be a loss. Because just like in the environment, diversity is a good thing. The healthiest forests are the ones that are the most diverse ecologically. And I think that's the same for educational institutions, because it's never one size fits all for students," Derrenbacker says.