A large group of students, staff and faculty at the University of Windsor are taking a stand against recent job cuts and service changes at the school.
On Tuesday morning, over 150 people met in front of the Chrysler Building before marching to protest outside of the school's President and Vice-Chancellor, Robert Gordon's office.
Last week, it was announced that the University would be streamlining services, and merging administrative support. These merged services include IT/AV technical support, communications, advancement, among others.
Due to these changes, it was announced that a significant number of staff members in CUPE 1393 and in the Unifor 2458 full- and part-time office and clerical staff groups will be affected.
The changes impact 56 CUPE 1393 positions, eight of which are vacant. 29 new CUPE 1393 roles are being created, for a net reduction of 27 CUPE 1393 positions - a 20 per cent loss in CUPE membership.
Sean O'Neil, a fourth-year student and President of the Communication Students Association at the University of Windsor, says there needs to be more transparency.
"They have sent a few emails to staff about these cuts that have been made, and have been extremely vague, and really have been paragraphs of nothing," says O'Neil. "There's been no direct communications with students about how these changes will affect us, and no consideration taken, no opinion has been surveyed, nothing like that. So, it's hard to see how they're taking students into consideration."
He says students will be impacted by the decision.
"The ability to actually communicate with our department, communicate amongst different student groups, that's all being limited," he says. "It's going to be very constrained, very difficult to do. And then they're cutting down sessional professors, they're cutting contracts of limited-time professors which means that less course loads are being offered, less variety is being offered within our departments, losing a lot of valuable resource. Academic advisors are also being cut among our programs."
O'Neil says the university should reconsider the changes it has made.
"I think cutting support staff is a terrible decision, that's one that's been affecting the university, it's going to continue affecting the university poorly," says O'Neil. "Cutting part-time secretaries who are making maybe $30,000, $40,000 a year at most isn't going to push the needle in terms of a $30-million debt. That's not what's going to be making the changes."
The university is blaming the cuts and the change in services on a projected revenue-expenditure gap of at least $30-million in the operating budget for fiscal 2025-2026.
In a statement provided by the University Tuesday morning, it states that 'The University of Windsor is committed to upholding freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. All members of our campus community have the right to express their views in accordance with the University's Freedom of Expression Policy.'
The statements goes on to say, 'Like many universities across Canada, the University of Windsor is navigating financial challenges and making difficult decisions to ensure long-term sustainability. The entire University community-including students-has been invited to help identify opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Throughout this process, we continue to prioritize academic excellence and the student experience.'