MUN President Vianne Timmons’s leadership called into question

After the employment contract for Memorial University of Newfoundland’s new Provost and Vice-President (Academic), Dr. Florentine Strzelczyk, and the costs of the search for the new Provost was published, many people expressed anger on social media.

“Increasing administrative salaries during a pandemic, while looking to increase tuition… leaves so many ethical questions.”

“The more things change, the more they remain the same. Increasing administrative salaries during a pandemic, while looking to increase tuition for students just leaves so many ethical questions. It seems like those in power believe that they have no duty to those they are supposed to serve. We need new ways to think about leadership because this is clearly not it” said a person on social media.

Another person stated, “Crazy stuff, this is ridiculous… Especially in the middle of a pandemic…”

MUN Engineering professor Mike Hinchey stated, “The Young People of NL are its most important resource. For the best of them, MUN should be free. This could add significantly to the well-being of NL. Yet they are being loaded down with debt.”

Hinchey then stated, “worldwide, oligarchs are everywhere. They generally hide in the shadows and control everything around them. NL is no exception. Our Oligarchs have been bleeding us dry for centuries. They are why NL is always a mess.”

Hinchey said that our Oligarchs gave MUN a growth mandate, “they hired Presidents, by secret search, with basically no input from us, to execute that mandate. The goal is to move as many bodies through MUN as possible. Lots of meaningless research requires lots of CFA [Come-From-Away] graduate students so that is what growth is based on. Most of the research money MUN gets is government money. It is easy money.”

“They hired Presidents, by secret search, with basically no input from us.”

Mike Hinchey

Hinchey stated that it has nothing to do with diversity or the freedom and dignity of CFAs and that is just a smokescreen.

“Just like [former president] Kachanoski, Timmons is a puppet of the Oligarchs of NL.  She is fixated on the growth mandate. That is what she is being paid the big bucks to execute. Just like Kachanoski, she can be fired without cause by the Oligarchs of NL. So, she is highly motivated. She is not a friend of students. Actually, she is their biggest enemy. She sees them as a nuisance. It seems the pandemic was used as an excuse to keep them from MUN,” said Hinchey.

Matt Barter is a third-year student in the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. He enjoys reading thought-provoking articles, walks in nature, and volunteering in the community.