{"id":2051,"date":"2019-02-14T12:43:58","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T17:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lufappuldev.wpengine.com\/?p=2051"},"modified":"2019-02-15T11:53:30","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T16:53:30","slug":"media-release-laurentian-faculty-association-calls-for-more-transparency-after-exposing-special-deals-for-university-administrators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/?p=2051","title":{"rendered":"Media Release &#8211; Laurentian Faculty Association Calls for More Transparency after Exposing Special Deals for University Administrators"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Sudbury \u2013 February 14, 2019)&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;The Laurentian\nUniversity Faculty Association is calling for more transparency in the\npractices of the University\u2019s Board of Governors after the disclosure of\nspecial deals for senior university administrators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt is another sign of how the corporate\nmodel is becoming increasingly prevalent in our universities,\u201d said LUFA\nPresident Fabrice Colin. \u201cThese sweetheart deals are shocking given the\nuniversity\u2019s deficit and the administration\u2019s demands for cutting services and\nstaff.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The contracts include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Former vice-president,\nresearch, Rui Wang, who was handed an $800,000 start-up allowance when hired in\n2014 with the promise of a 3,650 square foot lab space to be available to him\nby fall 2015; Wang also received a discretionary annual budget 50 percent higher\nthan the sponsored research income per full-time university faculty member<\/li><li>Former university\npresident Dominic Giroux was promised a lifetime right of return as a full\nprofessor (the top rank) starting with a 1 year paid administrative leave, even\nthough he was leaving the university for another position as the full-time CEO\nof the Sudbury regional hospital<\/li><li>Interim president\nPierre Zundel was promised reappointment for four years to his former post of\nvice-president, academic and provost; he could also opt to become a \u201cUniversity\nResearch Chair in Teaching and Learning\u201d at the Centre for Academic Excellence\nor another unit, with a salary in the 90th percentile of full professors<\/li><li>Interim vice-president\nacademic and provost, Serge Demers, was promised the right to be appointed to\nanother senior administrator post if he were terminated without cause; he was\nalso given a discretionary annual research budget of $16,900, any unspent\nbalance of which was to be carried over to subsequent years while at the university<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The revelation regarding the former\nuniversity president came during an arbitration in December 2018-January 2019,\nwhile the others were learned earlier.&nbsp;\n\u201cIronically,\u201d said Colin, \u201cthis has come to light when the faculty\nassociation has been advocating for equity in starting salaries and start-up\ngrants over the past several years.\u201d&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The saga began in April 2017 when the\nuniversity announced that Giroux was leaving Laurentian after 8 years at the\nhelm as president to become CEO of Health Sciences North, the Sudbury regional\nhospital. He assumed the post in October 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet rumours persisted that Giroux had\nbeen granted a special leave despite having resigned as President. Despite\nrepeated requests made by the faculty union during the summer and fall of 2017,\nthe administration did not respond to its questions regarding the status of Giroux\u2019s\nrelationship with the university.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Concerned that a special deal was\nstruck, LUFA filed a grievance in December 2017 requesting information on\nGiroux\u2019s employment status. Protracted legal maneuvers ensued in the months\nthat followed, including a freedom of information request for the other\nadministrators\u2019 contracts. A full account is given on the LUFA website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not until December 2018, when the\narbitration began, did the employer finally disclose the details of the former\npresident\u2019s special leave. However, no documents were provided on the terms and\nconditions of Giroux\u2019s possible return. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are dismayed with the lack of\ntransparency that has resulted in these extremely lengthy and costly procedures\nto access what should be public information,\u201d said Colin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He added: \u201cWe are urging the Board of\nGovernors to change its practices. Arbitrator Kevin Burkett had previously\nruled that Laurentian needed to consult with faculty members and departments on\nthe appointment of senior administrators. This only makes sense since we are a\npublicly funded institution. Yet Burkett\u2019s decision, which has since beenenshrined in the collective agreement,\ncontinues to be ignored.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Founded\nin 1979, LUFA represents over 400 full-time faculty as well as over 300 part-time\nfaculty at Laurentian University, the University of Sudbury, Huntington\nUniversity and Thorneloe University. For more information, please visit <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lufappul.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>https:\/\/lufappul.ca\/<\/em><\/a><em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">-30-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lufappuldev.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/SteinbergArbitration2019.pdf\">SteinbergArbitration2019<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/lufappuldev.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/SteinbergArbitration2019.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button\" download>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lufappuldev.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Burkettarbitration.pdf\">BurkettArbitration2017<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/lufappuldev.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Burkettarbitration.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button\" download>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lufappuldev.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Contracts_UniversitySeniorAdministrators.pdf\">Contracts_UniversitySeniorAdministrators<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/lufappuldev.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Contracts_UniversitySeniorAdministrators.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button\" download>Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Sudbury \u2013 February 14, 2019)&nbsp; &nbsp;The Laurentian University Faculty Association is calling for more transparency in the practices of the University\u2019s Board of Governors after the disclosure of special deals for senior university administrators. \u201cIt <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/?p=2051\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":915,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-french"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/915"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}