by Shanleigh Brosseau, Editor

The library is getting ready for a fight.

On March 21st, 2019, J.N. Desmarais Library sent out an email addressed to all students, staff and faculty with the subject line: “Collection cuts coming?” The email contained information about the current draft of the university budget “projecting a cut of about $200,000 to the library’s collection budget.”

The email further said that a cut representing “9.5% of last year’s total of $2,104,225 leaving $1,904,625 or 1.2% of the total university budget.”

Ashley Thomson, the library representative at Senate, said he is concerned about the possible collection cuts coming to the University library due to proposed funding cuts.

“There is a huge number of full-text journals that students will not have access to anymore,” Thomson said.

[Note: Thomson is also a member of the Lambda Board of Directors]

Thomson said that Huntington University and the University of Sudbury have budgets for their libraries. However, Thorneloe relies on the main campus’ library to access resources.

Thomson said that the university is hoping to increase student recruitment and retention, but said they are cutting the services that will recruit and retain students.

“They are pouring their money into recruitment and how in the world are you going to recruit people to a University that [devalues] the academics they are trying to attract people to,” Thomson said.

Thomson said the email sent out has caused “buzz.”

“We are encouraging people to send their comments to us, and I encourage them to email senior administrators. [Administration] will not be bombarded, but they will get a number of emails [from people] expressing their concern.”

The library said they will make their decision on which resources to cut based on what students use the most.

Students were quick to voice their concerns on UMentioned Laurentian’s Facebook page. One post, with over 40 likes and several comments read: “[Hey Laurentian students!] Admin is cutting funding to our library: a resource [that] literally every student enrolled at Laurentian uses.”

The post included a screenshot of the resources—like journals and databases– considered for cancellation and urged students to email Interim-president Pierre Zundel.

‘Absurd’ cuts

Isabella Scola-Lawryshyn, a third-year student in Motion Picture Arts, expressed her concern on the UMentioned Laurentian post’s comments.

“I received the email [sent by the library], and I was about to delete it, but then I decided I should read it, I saw that my database was being cut so I [commented] on UMentioned after that,” Scola-Lawryshyn said.

“This is the only database of its kind that gives you access to full-text and academic journals concerning film and [television].”

Scola-Lawryshyn said that in her program, professors and students rely heavily on this database. She said she has reached out to professors about this, as well as library staff.

“They are cutting resources that are not used very much or have overlap, which is understandable but a lot of the databases that have low web traffic are from programs that have [fewer] students in them,” Scola-Lawrynshyn said.

“I think it’s absurd that [Laurentian is] cutting funds to the library, seeing as every student at Laurentian probably uses the library, especially the online resources because not every student can physically go to the library,” she said.

“I hope administration will reevaluate whether or not the library should take that big of a cut.”

Laurentian’s Interim President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Pierre Zundel told Lambda that there have been no final decisions on funding cuts, yet.

Zundel added that he feels that limited access to academic resources won’t deter potential students.

“It is possible that some people might be concerned about [that] in the grand scheme of things, I do not think it is a primary decision factor when students are deciding what university go to,” Zundel said.

“[That decision] tends to be decided on programs, the quality of experiences, and other things.”

“We are talking about a $200,000 cut to a $2 million acquisition budget,” Zundel said. “The librarians have been very careful to minimize the impact of that decision.”

Zundel said that the overall university budget cut will be around $10 million.

“We have worked hard to try to minimize the cuts to students and academic programs so that we would not harm people’s learning experiences,” Zundel said. “We have increased the amount of funding in some areas that are important to students, including increases in funding for mental health supports.”

“We have been collecting the feedback we are getting,” said Zundel. “We are looking at [this feedback] carefully, seeing where they are coming from, what they are saying [and] if substantial arguments are being made.”

Zundel said that there have been many changes to the University’s financial situation including cuts to tuition, changes in demographics and the recall of students from Saudi Arabia earlier this academic year.

“We have no choice but to adjust ourselves to the reality it creates of less money coming in,” Zundel said.