On February 29, 2024, Memorial University President and Vice-Chancellor Pro Tempore Neil Bose announced that the Vice-President (Grenfell Campus), Ian Sutherland, had been appointed as the next President and Vice-Chancellor of Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick.
After Memorial spent over $64K on the search for a new Vice-President (Grenfell Campus), Sutherland was the successful candidate and was appointed to the position for a five-year term that began on November 1, 2023.
It represents a troubling trend at Memorial. After spending over $60K on the search for a new Provost and increasing the salary for the position by 16.5 percent or from $274,500 to $320,000, in 2022, after less than a year as Vice-President (Academic) and Provost Florentine Strzelczyk left for the position as Provost at Western University in London, Ontario.
The findings in the Auditor General’s performance audit of Memorial University stated that five of 15 or 33 percent of executive positions recruited by private search firms during the audit period are no longer employed by the university.
On February 11, 2022, the Memorial University Faculty Association issued a release on the premature departure of Strzelczyk, asking, “What does it cost us when early departure becomes routine and ‘senior leadership’ positions are seen as waystations for a footloose managerial class with no long-term commitment to Memorial or the people who work and study here?”
Matt Barter is a fourth-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.
Leave a Reply