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Laurentian students ask the city for cash

Laurentian University students are turning to city council for transitional funding to keep the Barrie campus open until 2019.
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Talic Sheridan was one of about 20 students who attended a Barrie city council meeting Monday night to support demands for financial help to keep Laurentian University open until 2019.

Laurentian University students are turning to city council for transitional funding to keep the Barrie campus open until 2019.

The Student Union's James Westman spoke to council with supporters with about 20 supporters in the audience.

He recounted the LSU's activities since it was announced that the Barrie campus of Laurentian is slated to close by the end of the 2019 school year. General arts and management programs will end in 2016, with students being forced to transfer to the Sudbury campus or find an alternative way to complete their degrees.

“It’s simply a slap in the students’ faces,” said \ Westman, the union's vice-president. “Many of us are rightly furious.”

He told city council that transferring to Sudbury or completing online courses won't work for everyone.

"Many are mature students with spouses and families in Barrie, for example.

"It is a generous offer (free residence and food plan)," he said. "I believe it is an admission by the board of governors that they have wronged the students in Barrie."

Since the February closure announcement, students have held a sit in and a public protest at Georgian Drive and Duckworth Street. Student unions from across Canada have sent support for the LSU demand that all currently enrolled students be able to graduate in Barrie.

Despite efforts to gain support from local officials, Westman says there has been no response from the university and no help from local MPP Ann Hoggarth or the Ministry of Colleges and Training.

"Laurentian and the Ministry are blaming each other," he said. "And at this point, there is no transitional funding."

When the doors close on Laurentian Barrie, the city will be the largest municipality in Ontario without a university.

"It's an utter failure for Barrie to be without a university," he said.

Barrie councillors can debate the issue of providing transitional funding at a general committee April 4 or by direct motion at a council meeting on April 11.

 

 

 


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Robin MacLennan

About the Author: Robin MacLennan

Robin MacLennan has been a reporter, photographer and editor for the daily media in Barrie, across Simcoe County and Toronto for many years. She is a proud member of the Barrie community.
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