'It's definitely longer and tougher conversations,' Laurentian University trying to rebuilt trust with donors

Laurentian University says it has taken steps to make sure money donated for scholarships and bursaries isn't spent elsewhere.

But it's little comfort for those who say they still don't know what happened to the thousands they gave to northern Ontario's largest university.

"It was awful,"chief advancement officer Tracy MacLeod said of the Sudbury school's financial crisis, kicked off with the declaration of insolvency in 2021.

"It was really tough for anyone who cared about Laurentian University."

It was revealed during the bankruptcy protection proceedings that some money donated to Laurentian to create bursaries or scholarships was spent to cover other costs at the university.

MacLeod says there is $47 million in the university'sendowmentfund, $35 million of which goes to scholarships. Those donations are large enough that the interest paid out makes themself-perpetuating.

But the university says in a statement that there was approximately $2.5 million in non-endowed one-time donations earmarked for scholarships, $900,000 of which went to students, while the "balance is included in future budgets to be distributed to students."

MacLeod says her staff are "working individually" with those contributors to"re-connect and engage as meaningfully as possible" especially when the bursary or scholarship they donated to is for a program that was cut during Laurentian's financial crisis, including everything from the political science department to the swim team.

"I've had many, many difficult conversations over the last few years and it breaks my heart," she said.

MacLeod says now donations are kept in a separate bank account and the contract with the donormakes it clear that the money can't be spent elsewhere on campus.

"It's something I suppose for new donors, but for past donors like myself, it means nothing. That should have been there all along," said retired Laurentian professor Bill Crumplin.

He says he still doesn't know what happened to the thousands of dollars he and friends donated to create a scholarship to honour his late wife Donna Williams.

"What person who took accounting 101 would co-mingle funds like that? That's justcrazy."

Crumplin, who had been putting in $300 a month to the fund aimed at helping a female student focused on the environment, says he still doesn't understand how leadership at Laurentian "got off Scot-free" following the insolvency.

"I know what they did or did not do was not criminal, but it certainly was low," he said.

"They weren't thinking of the institution, they were thinking of themselves period."

MacLeod says most donations, including Crumplin's, are secure and she's happy to see some new donations coming in as well, although she admits that building trust with the new donors is taking a little longer.

"Now, it's taking a couple more transactions to instill confidence in the people that their money is going to go into the segregated bank account. It is going to be used for the intended purpose," she said.

"So, it's definitely longer and tougher conversations."

But MacLeod said ironically some of those new donors found out about Laurentian because of the publicity around it becoming the first university to use bankruptcy protection proceedings, normally reserved for the private sector.

"Even though it was really tough for Laurentian, people learned about us that didn't know about us," she said.

"And they want to be part of a success story."