Opinion: How can Laurentian University’s ‘Indigenous perspectives’ program idea do what Indigenous studies does?

By Dr. Mary Ann Corbiere

That new program idea was first mentioned in President Dr. Robert Haché’s April 15, 2021, message, which incidentally went only to Laurentian University e-mail addresses. We in the Indigenous Studies learned of it only indirectly, marking another step in his erasing federated universities and Indigenous Studies. The part of his message concerning Indigenous Studies states, with regard to solutions for students who have “questions regarding their academic path,…Laurentian…will provide approximately 140 students registered in the Indigenous Studies program at the University of Sudbury with access to courses rooted in Indigenous perspectives already on offer, mostly through Laurentian’s Faculty of Arts, in a range of disciplines. As part of our commitment to honour and affirm our tricultural mandate, Laurentian is committed to an Indigenous Perspectives program…in addition to its…Bachelor of Indigenous Social Work and Master of Indigenous Relations programs. This new program will be structured and developed for Senate approval, through active and ongoing engagement with the Laurentian University Native Education Council (LUNEC) and the Interim Associate Vice-President, Academic and Indigenous Programs.”

He omits an important piece of information: the Laurentian Senate has not discontinued or terminated the Indigenous Studies program. Apart from that, a proposal for a program on Indigenous perspectives hasn’t been drafted yet. A program proposal typically takes months to reach Senate for final approval. Perhaps President Dr. Haché plans to expedite approval by circumventing this process too as it did the collective agreement. The Laurentian University courses designated as “Indigenous-content courses” are presumably what he thinks are “rooted” in Indigenous perspectives. These are related to the B.A. Degree requirement that students take at least six credits in a course with this designation. A course gets this designation if it simply has 50% “Indigenous content”. The professor need not have specialized in Indigenous Studies. The huge enrolment increases in Indigenous Studies courses after this requirement took effect perhaps had President Haché eyeing with envy the tuition dollars that went to the University of Sudbury as a result.

In the eyes of Indigenous communities, it is Indigenous faculty who best provide insights concerning our histories, cultures, and so on. While Laurentian University hired (with great fanfare) roughly a dozen new Indigenous faculty about eight years ago into various programs including History, Sociology, and English, six of these new hires have left Laurentian University since then for other universities. Of the 11 or so full-time Indigenous faculty that were still with Laurentian University this year, seven are ones who had already been teaching for years in Indigenous Studies (two since 2008 and earlier) and in Indigenous social work before Laurentian University’s much-publicized hiring spree. Only one Nishnaabemo (speaks the language of the Anishinabek); she is retiring this July. Students who had planned to take Anishinaabemowin after this term are asking about these courses.

The question raised by President Haché’s April 1 update remains: Where in Laurentian University are the full-time faculty on which he based the claim he made then that Laurentian University has the faculty to deliver the courses that the federated universities (i.e., Indigenous studies at the University of Sudbury) were teaching? President Haché seems to think expertise developed by full-time Indigenous Studies scholars at the University of Sudbury over years of research and teaching is worthless, that anyone can provide insightful teaching on Indigenous matters, and that whoever is parked in front of the classroom can provide “Indigenous perspectives” just by assigning readings by Indigenous scholars.

The terminations of the federation agreement on April 1 and of numerous faculty on April 12 creates another question: Although the Master of Indigenous Relations was not on the list of programs terminated, who will be thesis supervisors for students in this program? Thesis supervision is part of the normal duties of full-time faculty. Although part-time faculty have expertise in the topic they teach, they work full-time at other jobs in order to be able to support their families. Is Laurentian University expecting them to add voluntary thesis supervision to the overloaded schedules of a vastly underpaid part-time workforce? How can Laurentian University claim it offers top-notch programs, especially at the graduate level, if it doesn’t have enough full-time faculty who will have the time to give the proper guidance to graduate students doing thesis research? One Master in Indigenous Relations student doing her thesis research on Anishinaabemowin revitalization won’t have a suitably qualified supervisor after April 30 (a related point of information: The project manager that Laurentian University hired a year ago to coordinate the Nishnaabemwin revitalization strategy is among those who were terminated on Bloody Monday).

For a university that throws about phrases like “the sacred character of its cultural identity” and terms like “honour”, its actions are being guided by values that are anything but sacred, honourable, and moral. It’s unfortunate that LUNEC, good-hearted people striving to ensure that the communities they represent – and the broader student body— get the best of Indigenous education, are being made complicit in this travesty.