By Lexey Burns, Editor in Chief
The Laurentian University Faculty Association [LUFA] says they have voted to reopen the admissions of programs suspended by the university in late July.
In a media statement, LUFA said that the programs had been initially suspended incorrectly by Interim Vice-President Academic and Provost Serge Demers. His personal announcement of the suspensions violated provincial legislation.
The 17 programs include Études de l’environnement/Environnement durable, Mathématiques– tous les programmes (spécialisation, majeure, concentration) (FR) (BA & BSc), Music – specialization, Modern languages – all programs, Théâtre (FR) – spécialisation, Geography (EN/FR) – specialisation, Archaeology – all programs, BAA en Ressources humaines (FR), BBA in International Management (EN), BBA in Entrepreneurship (EN), Outdoor Adventure Leadership (FR), Kinésie humaine (Maîtrise) (FR), Anthropology – all programs.
LUFA President Fabrice Colin said that the university values these previously suspended programs and that they look forward to students furthering their education “into the programs to which they applied and into which they were accepted.”
He added that the suspension of programs is a “collective responsibility” and cannot be determined by a subgroup or individual.
July’s suspension announcement came as an unwelcome surprise to students and staff. Malek Abou-Rabia, a second year Entrepreneur (BBA) student and the SGA’s VP of Education—whose program’s admissions was suspended—says that he had not heard about the decision until Sudbury.com published the announcement on their website.
“I’m really concerned around the fears this causes, right? We just went through a relatively, or an unacceptable approach to shutting down a program at Thorneloe, where students’ lives got ripped up and they aren’t really getting the quality of education they are used to,” Abou-Rabia said.
“I didn’t expect this to happen in the way it did and as quickly as it did.”
The university has not given any further details on how the programs will be reinstated.