Students at Laurentian University say they feel cheated out of their education.
Of almost 700 Laurentian students studying in Barrie, about 30 per cent will have no choice, but to move to Sudbury or complete degrees online. The Laurentian Students' Union says that doesn't work.
“They're essentially going to have to uproot their lives, finish their degrees online, which is more expensive than in-classroom education,” says union president Jeremy Ross.
The union says it was shut out of meetings with the school's Board of Governors that led to this decision and had to rely on very little information from their counterparts at the Sudbury campus.
“We're pretty frustrated and disappointed in the lack of communication with our student union,” says union vice president Melanie Van Ameron. “It's inequality and it's unacceptable.”
The union says the combination of poor representation and what they call an unbalanced decision has left many of their peers on the Georgian campus confused.
Social work students and some business and commerce students will be able to complete their studies here in Barrie; the rest will have to leave.
The union has almost 400 signatures on a petition demanding all current Laurentian students be allowed to complete their degrees in Barrie.
“Hopefully they'll see the error in their ways,” Ross says.
Laurentian students from Georgian will present the petition to the board of governors in three month time, but they say before that they hope to get a few more signatures next month when they take the petition to the Canadian Federation of Students.
With more than one and a half million members it's the largest student organization in Canada.
