The consequences of a federal move to drastically limit international students are becoming clearer at Vancouver’s Langara College.
At a tense board of governors meeting Thursday evening, faculty members outlined their frustration about the school’s unwillingness to provide clear numbers about the extent of job losses, both already in place and those which could still be yet to come.
“If your HR department isn’t able to tell you how many faculty have been lost, I think you seriously need to look at your HR department,” said Langara Faculty Association executive member Niall Christie while addressing the board.
In an email to members, the association’s president Pauline Greaves Aylward said the toll on instructors goes far beyond the 22 permanent faculty who were laid off.
Greaves compared the number of faculty paying union dues before and after the cap was brought in – saying it showed “a decline of 163 active faculty.” Additionally, Greaves Aylward said, 15 more instructors have opted for early retirement.
“Most of the work lost is by our temporary faculty, many of whom have worked at Langara for years and received no notice or severance for their loss of work. Together, this represents a loss of work for 200 faculty members at Langara, with more losses yet to be tallied as we enter a new semester,” the email from Greaves Aylward said.
A theme on Thursday was the sense faculty members are bearing the brunt of cost-cutting measures, with a push for clarity on whether administrators, who are often paid significantly higher wages than faculty, will also be affected.
“We’ve not heard, and this is the part, sorry, that really concerns me,” Greaves Aylward said. “We’ve not heard anything about the number of administrators, management that will be cut.”
The board heard on Thursday that since the federal government has brought in restrictions on international students, enrollment at the school has dropped by 26 percent. According to data on the college’s website, the average percentage of international students per semester hovered around 40 per cent between 2022 and 2024.
“We do have a significant loss of revenue as a result of loss of students which is mostly a result of changes in federal policy,” Langara College President Paula Burns told the board during the meeting.
The school’s bylaws mean it cannot run a deficit, and it has decided to cut costs through reducing work. That has meant layoffs, retirements and reduced shifts for faculty members. Some programs are being significantly slimmed down or eliminated altogether.
Langara Voice journalist Sage Smith broke the story outlining the scale of the cuts.
“I think that students right now are mostly confused,” Smith told CTV News. “They don’t actually understand what’s going on. They do hear that movements and layoffs are happening, but there’s a lack of clarity in terms of what that will actually mean for them.”
With a federal election looming, the school is pushing with other post-secondary institutions for a change in approach.
“We are lobbying provincial and federal government on behalf of all of us to understand the impact that the rapidness of their policy changes has had on us,” said Adam Brayford, the school’s director of communications during a media scrum on Thursday.
