Students continue protest over law school curriculum

A student group says it will continue a sit-in protest outside the office of Lakehead University's president until some changes are made to a first-year course at the new law school.

The university senate has voted to replace a full-credit class taught by indigenous studies faculty with a half-credit course taught through the faculty of law. But a group of about twenty Lakehead students says the new class has a much narrower focus.

After meeting with them Monday morning, Lakehead president Brian Stevenson set up a meeting in the afternoon between the student group and Lee Stuesser, the dean of the law school.

One of the students involved, Stephanie MacLaurin, said they didn't resolve anything at the meeting.

"We were hoping that they would admit that the Native Canadian World Views was a core component of the course," she said.

"They still haven't done that and they are not willing to — by the sounds of it — change that so that they can re-integrate it into the law program."

The group is open to finding middle ground, she added, such as having the class taught by law faculty, as the law school wants. The students insist they want the course to have full-credit status, however.

"In the end, we had asked [Stuesser] if he was going to reintegrate the program back into the law curriculum, and he said 'no.’ So we said, 'thank you very much, and we're going to sit here until you come to the table with something different.’"

MacLaurin said she and other students are prepared to continue the sit-in as long as they have to.

Steusser could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.