University professors do not pocket their research grants.
University professors do not get paid for their publications.
University professors do not get "summers off"
University professors do not just teach
I wrote this tweet because anecdotal evidence from conversations my friends and colleagues are having with community members suggests that there are a lot misconceptions about what we do, and this undermines our efforts re: the financial crisis that
@LaurentianU
is experiencing.
just to be clear -
@LaurentianU
inappropriately spent my research funds, and then terminated four of my collaborators, three of whom are part of
@ReNewZoo
, leaving our grad students in the lurch. If I'm angry and bitter, you'll understand why.
The dismantling of a public university by lawyers and accountants in order to satisfy creditors is obscene. The costs of a lack of leadership, incompetent financial management and poor decisions by the admin should not be borne by faculty, staff, students and community.
with all the terrible news about the financial distress of my university, I just want to say that there are so many good people teaching and conducting important research here. The faculty are much more than this crisis. Don't let this situation besmirch our reputation.
I survived, but so many dear friends and colleagues did not. My research program is in shambles with the loss of so many collaborators, and I am not alone in that. The ripple effects of yesterday’s massacre will be felt by many outside Laurentian. 1/?
First they unethically and illegally spent our research funds to cover up their own incompetence. Then they fired us and, for those that were left, forced us into draconian salary cuts and increased some teaching loads.
Well done
@LaurentianU
Public health is devoted to making things NOT happen. That means assessing the value of public health interventions is challenging: you need to compare events to a counter factual. That’s a great application for modeling.
I cannot write the words that I am screaming right now. We knew that the
@LaurentianU
insolvency was planned and executed by university Board, President and executive team. And here is the
@OntarioAuditor
saying just that. With more to come.
From
Dear
@CharlieAngusNDP
- on behalf of me and my friends/colleagues, thank you. Thank you for your passion and advocacy for
@LaurentianU
. This is what we’ve hoped for from our own MPs.
.
@BrettBuch
gave his heart and soul to Laurentian. An accomplished and respected international scholar, Director of the School of the Environment for 6 years. His termination is a disgrace.
This is all I'll say for right now:
Today, after 15 years
@LaurentianU
, I was terminated along with 100+ colleagues and friends. I'm gutted, sickened, and distraught for them, and for our students. This was utterly avoidable, and financial insolvency was a choice that was made.
when these cuts go down, and a LARGE number of academics are let go, this highly educated workforce with their similarly educated and high earning spouses will leave Sudbury. And local media is not covering this. Why? This will be a huge economic blow to this city.
it would be great if there was some expression of regret, even an apology, from the
@LaurentianU
admin for wrecking the lives of its employees, causing so much angst to students. The lack of severance for mid and early career faculty who are not eligible for pension is disgusting
Well it’s been a crazy 36 hrs, and I’d like to thank
@HSN_Sudbury
porters, nursing staff and doctors for the expeditious removal of my gall bladder. They were kind enough to provide me with this souvenir. Seriously, you were all great. Looking forward to my imminent discharge.
Students come first. Shipping samples for analysis for my grad student. Paying out of pocket because research budgets have been frozen due to insolvency.
Happy Earth Day -
@LaurentianU
deleted env science and env studies, and terminated all associated faculty including
@NMykytczuk
and
@BrettBuch
.
An utter disgrace.
here's a tip to academic administrators: it's not going to go over well when you ask faculty to teach courses normally taught by recently terminated colleagues.
I have been harshly critical of the administration and leadership of
@LaurentianU
since they declared insolvency in Feb 2021. Today, I watched the ON legislature speak in equally harsh terms about them. It is inconceivable that the institution I work for could find itself here.
We are looking for an MSc or PhD student (May 2021) to work on evol ecol of small mammals w/ a long-term project (69 years) in
@Algonquin_PP
. Student will be
@LaurentianU
and co-supervised by me and
@jeffcbowman
. Field research conducted
@AlgonquinWRS
. Please RT.
The thoughtless and damaging actions this past Monday were done by lawyers and accountants ignorant of the contributions and obligations of the faculty they terminated. A thread.
the Ontario academic community needs to know that draconian cuts are coming to Laurentian. People's lives will be destroyed. The CCAA was never the right process, and is going to bring misery. This will no longer be a university. God speed.
I am hearing from more and more colleagues. The termination decisions are beyond baffling. I can't believe so many productive and inspiring professors are being terminated. How is this ok
@RossRomanoSSM
@recteurulpres
???
I spent two sabbaticals in France, and the culture around food at work couldn't be more different than what we have here. The research teams all eat together at a canteen with subsidized prices. Here, I eat alone in my office, and my choices are Subway or Tim Horton's. Inhumane.
Aristotle explained why polities which ate communally had an advantage over those that did not. Apply that reasoning to campuses and there's a logical path to the return of faculty clubs, more food-oriented campus events and cheaper cafeteria food.
sat in on today's CCAA court procedures re:
@LaurentianU
. So depressing to hear students discussed as if they are commodities, courses as if they can be swapped between institutions and instructors, and our careers and lives ignored. Where is the province in all this?
nothing is more rewarding in this job than when former graduate students are getting great jobs, fellowships and entering PhD programs. Our lab has had some great news over the past week, and I'm here for it.
Perhaps the fatal flaw in the calamitous “restructuring” exercise
@LaurentianU
has been put through is that they focussed on enrolment numbers in PROGRAMS not COURSES. Yes, there were few students taking a BA in philosophy, but those undergrad courses were full.
the mandate of a university is the teaching and production of scholarship (ie. research). Faculty do the "work" of the university. Not administrators, not managers. 1/2
I am starting to look for a MSc student to start Sept 2022 to work on the urban ecology of eastern chipmunks. The funded project will build on previous work in this system here in Sudbury. I have ideas, but of course the student will have lots of leeway to develop their own ideas
“Why do we keep allowing cuts to universities?”
#cdnpse
#highered
One partial answer: a growing tendency to think of PSE institutions (incorrectly) as corporations rather than as public stockpiles of expertise & essential educational services.
#cdnpoli
.
@LaurentianU
scientist and
@CEEEC_LU
member Dr. Jackie Litzgus featured here. She has fought off baseless accusations and stood her ground in her work saving Canada's species at risk. A great colleague with impeccable integrity.
a reminder that 3 years ago today, Laurentian's Board and President at the time fired 120+ faculty, closed dozens of programs and destroyed the academic integrity of the university. We are still rebuilding.
I have been screaming into the twitterverse today but this matters. City, prov and fed officials remain utterly silent while a public university is decimated is unacceptable. Why the complicity? Who is pulling strings in the background? Or is this simply the CCAA?
I have nothing but contempt for those
@LaurentianU
administrators and their legal counsel who told the community that it was our fault LU declared insolvency.
With today's announcement of significant support by
@JillDunlop1
for
@LaurentianU
, and the resignation of most (all?) of the Board of Governors, I hope
@LaurentianU
can rebuild from this crushing blow, including bringing back modified programs and colleagues who were terminated.
We must reverse these cuts. This CCAA process must end and we need to get these people back. These cuts must be reversed. How can any government allow this?
@RossRomanoSSM
@BiggerSudbury
@LefebvrePaul
, you must help. Please.
As our faculty crack under the pressure and learn that their careers are effectively over due to the clearly incompetent financial management of the university, I hope we/they receive the support they need from their employer.
I have documented a couple of examples of how this insolvency has affected my research group. There are many others here that are worse off. I thank all of you who have reached out to me and my colleagues with support. Its fantastic to be part of the Canadian research community.
I recently did a couple of interviews on
@MorningNorth
and
@cbcasithappens
about the
@LaurentianU
insolvency and the
@OntarioAuditor
prelim report that came out. The resulting draconian cuts that were implemented have been devastating on EVERY level.
1/?
I started my class today with an acknowledgement of the
#December6
#MontrealMassacre
anniversary. All students were born after 2000, and many were not familiar. There were audible gasps when I described how the perpetrator separated the women and murdered them.
#WeRemember
as we sift through the wreckage of yesterday's massacre, it is clear that the insolvency lawyers and accountants had no plan other than to cut indiscriminately. There is no strategic value to anything that was done yesterday.
I am going to limit my comments about the financial disaster at my institution so I don't become a target if/when job losses happen. But - this is crazy. All I can think is that someone is responsible for all this. This didn't happen because of LUFA's CA.
Earth has been a tropical, warm planet for more than 90% of its evolutionary history. Life flourished in a warmer world, something every farmer knows. Life suffers in cold & cold is the root cause of all extinction events. We now face the same icehouse world of the carboniferous
Congratulations to
@ibzimmermann
who, in the midst of the institutional chaos, successfully defended her MSc thesis yesterday on the effects of parasites on the captive breeding program of the endangered loggerhead shrike. Thanks to
@TheTorontoZoo
,
@WPCWild911
for support. 1/2
The ad is coming soon, but I am looking for a MSc or PhD student to join my lab to work with me, Gabriela Mastromonaco
@TheTorontoZoo
and
@JGAMartin
on a
@MitacsCanada
application for a project on the evolution of senescence in captive zoo populations. Please RT.
Late but successful start to the 2020 field season of the Algonquin small mammal project! Total of 34 deer mice trapped and tagged so far. Looks like a high year for Peromyscus mice in Algonquin 🐭
as we wait to hear about our fate on Monday, I am going to tweet out some important passages from the publicly available affidavit our
@lufappul
prez provided the court that (amazingly) has not been picked up by the press
Currently on a super comfortable
@VIA_Rail
train to Montreal. How nice would it be to have regular train service from
@GreaterSudbury
to Ottawa and Toronto?
@LaurentianU
finally, on the last day of their employment, our colleagues were treated in the most callous way possible. Benefits cut when they were most needed, insulting wording in letters, and cutting off some email accounts.
It's pathological.
.
@LaurentianU
admin should be thanking the faculty for being so successful at attaining research funding. It was only by our research success that the university admin were able to keep their fiscal ponzi scheme running for so many years.
when the media stories come out and the letter from
@laurentianu
to the Ministry of Colleges and Universities from Jan 25 2021 is explained, remember the Board that turned down $12 million from the gov are part of the Sudbury community. And they chose to destroy the university.
these obscene cuts were made by ignorant insolvency lawyers % accountants. They have breached agreements with funding agencies from both prov and fed gov and others. They have destroyed the scholarly enterprise of
@LaurentianU
. Shame on them, and on the admin that allowed it.
they mis-used our research money, fired our friends and colleagues, cancelled our programs, forced us into a punitive collective agreement, have strangled our university since Feb, but they want good news stories???
I am in the last month of the
@CRC_CRC
in Applied Evolutionary Ecology. I've had the Chair since Jan 2011, and it has been a privilege to have the research support associated with it.
Thanks to
@LaurentianU
for their support, and the graduate students that worked with me. 1/?
Students in an online class were told they had one of these 2 TAs. But behind the scenes,
@EmilyKhazan
, left, fulfilled TA duties for all 136 students. When student evaluations came in, though, guess which TA scored higher?
#WomeninScience
#womeninstem
I hope when this CCAA debacle over that there is transparency and accountability for those that put us here. Anything less would be unacceptable. The damage Laurentian's fiscal crisis has caused is incalculable
Thank you to
@jamiewestndp
for his advocacy on behalf of
@LaurentianU
students, staff and faculty.
No other Sudbury candidate spoke up about Laurentian in any meaningful way.
He and
@NickelBelt
are true champions for our university.
"Pruitt has been placed on a paid administrative leave"
How much government funding has been spent on this fraudulent scientist. How many years of the average NSERC Discovery Grant have been sucked up by Pruitt?
With all the terminations and departures, the admin and board of governors of
@LaurentianU
, anyone who advised that CCAA was a good idea - these people have cratered Laurentian’s research capacity. I was proud of how far it had come since 2003, when I arrived. Now, it’s toast.
a reminder that whatever happens in terms of the cost of restructuring, the sale of public assets, loss of students etc re: the insolvency of
@LaurentianU
, it's the tax payer that will paying for it all. Would have been cheaper for the gov to have helped out and avoid CCAA.
What is left here is nothing. Our francophone and indigenous character is gone. Our president no longer describes the bilingual and “tri cultural”mandate in his communications. Our strategic areas of strength are gutted 3/?
one thing to note - none of the press releases today re:
@LaurentianU
support have mentioned the burden that has been borne by the faculty. None. It's as if a university doesn't have or need faculty.