U of S, Trent U professors to teach remaining Indigenous courses at Laurentian

Laurentian is offering six Indigenous Studies courses this spring, but they're not being taught by Laurentian faculty.

The courses were among those offered at the University of Sudbury, one of the federated universities with which Laurentian cut tiesduring insolvency proceedings. Aspart of a deal negotiated between Laurentian and University of Sudbury, Laurentian would make a one-time offering of the six courses in Indigenous Studies.

The deal was also spurred on by a resolution from theLaurentian University Native Education Council (LUNEC)dated April 12, to help students finish their programs.

Since its insolvency hearings began, Laurentian has argued it could save money by having its own faculty teach classes offered by its former federated partners except, there are no Laurentian professors teaching these six courses

Sessional instructors from the former University of Sudbury and two from Trent University are taking on the teaching duties.

Will Morin, a sessional instructor at the former University of Sudbury, said when the offer finally trickled down to him, he had to dig deep to consider accepting.

"Do I take this offering, this request of me to teach this course in light of all of what was being done, and the behaviour that Laurentian had exhibited?" Morin said.

"It was hard, but ironically, the course that I'm teaching is an Indigenous tradition and culture course of which the values that I aspire to, and teach, is about how important it is to be humble."

Morin said that as part of an agreement between Laurentian and its faculty, the job of teaching any of the six Indigenous Studies courses could be offered to every Laurentian professor in any department, even those who had been laid off, before itcould be offered to any of the former University of Sudbury professors, full or part-time.

The full-time professors at University of Sudbury declined the offers in favour of allowing the sessionals, who needed the money more, to take the jobs, he said.

Morin says Laurentian faculty likely turned down the opportunity for various reasons, including a sensitivity to the subject matter which had been developed by instructors at the University of Sudbury in the specific discipline of Indigenous Studies.

He said Laurentian may have professors who are Indigenous but they teach in different fields, such as social work, and don't necessarily qualify to teach in the specific field of Indigenous Studies.

The two courses that are being taught by instructors from Trent University had been designed by a University of Sudbury professor who passed away a couple of weeks ago.

Indigenous Studies a distinct discipline

Morin said it would have been "disrespectful" for himor any of his colleagues toteach classes that Patrick-baCorbierehad created and led for so long.

"Bureaucracy has a way of ignoring the human reality and the human being itself, as does the CCAA process," Morin said. "It doesn't consider humans and the impact of this process on human beings because it's only about the money and the creditors and their concerns."

Denise Zwang, an Indigenous Studies student, said the process of enrolling in thecourses was impersonal and riddled with confusion. She also saidthat it came as a shock that professors from different universities were leading the classes.

"We were told both of these instructors will be temporary replacements," Zwang said. "We actually just got an e-mail from IT, not even signed at the bottom, saying your course instructor will be first name, last name, full stop."

"Not even signed by anyone saying it was from Laurentian. So we knew we would have these two instructors. I asked around to other people at Laurentian and found out they were both from Trent."

She also said that the decision to inform students came at the last minute, with the email telling them just days before the class began.

Laurentian says hiring practices followed

"I feel that it was kind of a trick," she said. "I asked the question for the last three weeks, who was going to be teaching these courses?"

"And [Laurentian] kept pushing me to enrol, but no one would answer my question. 'Don't worry, it's going to be a qualified teacher,' they said. And then suddenly you have someone from another university."

"I mean, honestly, if we wanted to go to another university, we can transfer out of Laurentian and go to Trent, which many students have chosen to do."

As for Laurentian, a spokesperson saidin a statement that while the University does not comment on individual personnel matters, it confirms that the established hiring practices have been followed.