Let us finish our degrees in Barrie, Laurentian students tell execs

Suzanne Kerst burst into tears of joy when she was accepted into Laurentian University's Barrie campus in September, 2015.

There were more tears last week when the mother of two learned the campus would be closing next year, but now there is frustration and anger replacing the joy.

"This is unfair. It's really, really unfair," Kerst said after a public meeting Tuesday night. "All students currently enrolled in degree programs at Laurentian University's Barrie campus should be allowed to graduate here before the site closes."

About 300 students and some parents attended the forum hosted by Laurentian University at Georgian College's Rowntree Theatre, and most agree that the doors should stay open for all students until graduation day.

They listened patiently for about an hour as Laurentian president Dominic Giroux explained why the university decided to close its Barrie doors at the end of 2017 - leaving over 200 students to find other ways to complete their four-year degrees. Only the school of social work - about 500 students - will continue in Barrie until 2019 to complete their degrees.

"I'm in psychology, one of the programs that will not be available anywhere else in Simcoe County," said Kerst. "I have two kids, a family. These are all the reasons I can't just move somewhere else."

For Laurentian, the writing was on the wall in July, 2015 - when the province rejected plans to expand to a stand-alone site in Barrie and sever ties with Georgian College.

That decision, combined with many other "government constraints" made it impossible for Laurentian to provide "the type of environment that university students would expect," Giroux said.

"When a university is supported by its community and the government . . . magic can happen," he said. "Unfortunately, in Simcoe County since 2010, we have had to deal with constraints that have made it impossible to create that magic here."

He went on to tell students that the decision to close Laurentian Barrie is a move to preserve the integrity of all universities and the educations earned there. It was a unanimous vote by the Board of Governors.

"There are many options to earn their degrees," he said, referring to the displaced students.

Those unable to graduate in Barrie can:

• transfer to Sudbury with free residence and meal plan beginning in Fall 2016 - worth between $9,728 and $12,436 per year until normal  fulltime degree completion
• complete 3-year Laurentian BA in Barrie
• complete Laurentian on-line or distance education courses at no extra cost
• transfer to another university

Constraints imposed by the provincial government included limiting the university to just 10,000 square-feet of space in Georgian's oldest building. Also, students in the general arts studies would have been taught by college professors for the first two years of their degree programs.

Four options were presented to the board, including a $60 million stand-alone university campus in downtown Barrie - an option that was strongly supported by the city.

"Both city staff and university staff decided it was a very risky option," Giroux explained, referring to a letter from the province stating that operating funds would be cut off if the university moved away from Georgian.

"We worked very hard ... but it would have been very difficult to undertake that option when we were told that operating funds would not be available."

Students questioned the integrity of Laurentian executives and board who decided to "abandon" hundreds of students.

"They booked their futures on the vision that you sold them," said the mother of a first year student. 

Emotions ran high during the two-hour town hall meeting as students vented their frustration and confusion about the decision to close.

Speaker after speaker urged the university to keep the doors open long enough for all current students to graduate.

"Why did you accept more people into these programs, if you knew they would not be able to graduate here?" one student asked. "You took a gamble with our futures and we lost."

Others talked about the anxiety, stress and uncertainty the decision has caused and they criticized university brass for not consulting with students prior to voting.

"For me, it isn't really about the fact that the university is leaving Barrie," said Collette Moir. "That's bad enough for the city, but for the students ... all we want is for the university to hold its end of the bargain. They need to stay here long enough for us to get our degrees. That was the bargain."

As for Kerst, she has already taken advantage of the university's offer to meet individually to develop an education plan.

"There were options to compress my studies and things like that, but I don't see how that's going to work," she said.

"Right now, I have no idea what I'm going to do."