Facing budget challenges, nearly 100 employees were impacted by layoffs at Simon Fraser University (SFU).
“Declining international student enrolment has had an impact on our financial situation,” Michael Russell, SFU’s director of media relations and public affairs, told Daily Hive.
He adds that other prominent universities have also faced budget challenges.
“In early April, the university announced that it would be restructuring certain areas of its operations with an aim to increase efficiency and reduce duplication,” Russell said.
Russell added that “as part of this work, we shared that we would also review service levels and identify work that needs to be reorganized. It was noted that during this restructuring, some administrative job losses can be expected. That process has been underway this week.”
We also obtained the email from Provost and Academic Vice-President Dilson Rassier, SFU’s chief budget officer, sent to faculty and staff.
“It has been a tough week for all of us at SFU. As you may know, we have made the difficult decision to eliminate positions held by some of our colleagues. As a result, there have been approximately 85 SFU employee position eliminations,” reads Rassier’s statement.
Many are reacting to the layoffs on the SFU subreddit.
One person reacting to the news claims to be one of the employees who was impacted.
“It sucks. The guy who was supposed to fire me got fired too,” they said.
“This is a s**tshow and a short-term solution to just make the numbers look better on paper,” the alleged employee added.
They also claimed the job loss resulted in them losing their tuition waiver, leaving them in tears.
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We’ve reached out to the employee for additional details and to confirm the validity of their claims.
“This university is managed so poorly,” someone else wrote.
Another user said, “Reducing everything but the tuition.”
Rassier’s statement concludes with an acknowledgement of the difficult times.
“I want to acknowledge that the uncertainty and changes have been hard on our community. Thank you for navigating this challenging period with the care and consideration that SFU is known for and for your continued commitment to SFU.”