{"id":9233,"date":"2014-07-10T15:15:56","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T22:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=9233"},"modified":"2014-07-11T15:55:41","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T22:55:41","slug":"camosun-kathryn-laurin-was-notified-of-termination-on-june-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2014\/07\/10\/camosun-kathryn-laurin-was-notified-of-termination-on-june-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun: Kathryn Laurin was notified of termination on June 20"},"content":{"rendered":"

We reported yesterday that Camosun College president Kathryn Laurin will be leaving her position as of September 1, 2014<\/a>. She was leaving to pursue other opportunities, according to an internal document that was sent by Camosun to its staff, but an article published on the Times Colonist<\/a> website today quoted Laurin as saying she is \u201csurprised by the termination of my contract and that the news has been released while I am away out of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun College president Kathryn Laurin is leaving in September, but the details of why have not been released (file photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Camosun vice president of communications, advancement and planning Joan Yates says that Laurin was notified of the termination of her contract on June 20. (Laurin, who is on vacation right now, did not reply to an email requesting information before this story went to press.)<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, Kathryn was notified and also played a role in the message that went to the college community and was consulted on that and was told prior to its release,\u201d says Yates.<\/p>\n

Yates says that the circumstances surrounding the termination of the contract are \u201ca private issue between [Camosun\u2019s] Board of Governors and the staffperson\u201d and the college will not discuss them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs to the circumstances of it, I think people can and will speculate, but the key point is she’s not coming back. That’s the key piece. That’s what the college community should be focusing on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yates says that there is no ill will and that everyone at Camosun wishes Laurin the best.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that’s a genuine feeling expressed throughout the organization, and I think that’s probably where we want to leave it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony Nelson, vice president of CUPE Local 2081, says that the union is \u201cquite surprised\u201d that the termination is coming so soon after the renewal of Laurin\u2019s contract. He also expresses concern about the circumstances that may have led to her termination.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lack of any quantitative information,” says Nelson, “but from what I understand and know, Kathryn was quite a vocal critic of the government\u2019s ESL funding cuts as well as our funding cuts overall. If that had anything to do with her being let go, this sounds a very clear warning shot to any and all presidents across postsecondary education here in BC: you can advocate, but don\u2019t advocate too hard. I worry about those things, because a president is supposed to advocate for its institution\u2019s funding. Whether the government likes to hear that message or not, it needs to be said.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story is similar to what is happening at Douglas College, where president Scott McAlpine left suddenly last month. Douglas also said that their president was leaving \u201cto pursue other opportunities,\u201d according to The Royal City Record<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to draw the parallels,\u201d Nelson says about the situations at Camosun and Douglas. \u201cDouglas were quite vocal in their stance on those ESL cuts and the state of funding in BC overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister of advanced education Amrik Virk declined to comment on the Camosun and Douglas situations, with a spokesperson for the minister saying that this is between the boards of governors and the colleges and the ministry is not involved.<\/p>\n

Laurin\u2019s termination also comes with a financial cost, says Nelson.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the college is on the hook for all or a certain percentage of her salary,\u201d he says. \u201cWhere\u2019s that money going to come from? We\u2019re told there\u2019s no money. Where is that money going to come from?\u201d<\/p>\n

More to come as the story develops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We reported yesterday that Camosun College president Kathryn Laurin will be leaving her position as of September 1, 2014. She was leaving to pursue other opportunities, according to an internal document that was sent by Camosun to its staff, but an article published on the Times Colonist website today quoted Laurin as saying she is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9233"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9246,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9233\/revisions\/9246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}