Queen’s has been facing a financial and administrative crisis for nearly two years. While some of the responsibility for the financial crisis lies with decisions made by the provincial and federal governments — a combination of funding freezes, tuition reductions, and interference with international student admissions — a large part of the blame rests squarely with our current University administration.

The administration claims there is no money, yet the reality is not a lack of resources—it’s a lack of transparency, accountability, and a commitment to all of our core values, most notably acting with integrity, collaboration, data-based decisions using relevant metrics, and empathy, compassion, and respect. Students, staff, and faculty are not only being told to tighten belts—they’re being asked to bear the burden of decisions made behind closed doors by an administration driven by corporate logic rather than public education values.

The university’s budgeting process has become a smokescreen. The administration insists that cuts are unavoidable while the institution continues to funnel funds into market-facing initiatives and strategic realignments, while departments are gutted, staff are laid off, and essential academic and student support services are undermined.

One of the most egregious examples of this mismanagement is the hiring of the private firm Nous Consulting to oversee the so-called “Renew Project”—a vague and costly initiative presented as a path toward institutional sustainability. Instead of respecting collegial governance and meaningfully engaging with staff, faculty, and students, Queen’s has outsourced visioning to a corporate consultancy whose interests are capitalistic and far removed from the needs of the academic community.

While these consultants are paid handsomely, the fallout for workers has been devastating. Layoffs have hit hard, with entire units like Arts and Science Online facing mass terminations. The Smith School of Business, often viewed as the university’s cash cow, has not been immune either—despite its reputation for financial security, staff there have been let go en masse. These layoffs have not only cost people their livelihoods but have also decimated institutional knowledge, severely impacted workloads for those who remain, and adversely impacted student learning and their experiences at Queen’s.

To mask the erosion of staff and services, Queen’s has pursued a strategy of consolidation and centralization, creating so-called “hubs” in the Faculty of Arts and Science that claim to streamline service delivery but in practice create chaos and unmanageable workloads. Staff are increasingly isolated from the students and faculty they serve, and the quality of support has plummeted due to the resource famine.

Meanwhile, Queen’s has quietly begun shuttering entire departments and programs, often with little to no consultation, under the guise of “efficiency” or alignment with a “Bicentennial Vision” that reads less like an academic future and more like a rebranding as a technical and vocational training centre. The shift is clear: prioritize industry partnerships and marketable outputs over critical thinking, liberal education, and community-engaged scholarship.

Workers are also being squeezed on all fronts. The university has withheld cost-of-living increases for years, a move that is unethical and has been deemed unconstitutional. USW 2010, the union representing support staff, was presented with a paltry and deeply unfair contract that failed to meet the cost-of-living crisis affecting so many in Kingston. And graduate student workers, represented by PSAC 901, were forced into a strike after months of disrespectful bargaining by the administration. This has created enormous disruptions—not only for grad workers who rely on their stipends to survive but for undergraduate students, faculty, and the overall functioning of academic programs. The university’s refusal to meaningfully engage in negotiations is an attack on academic labour, disguised as fiscal restraint.

All of these measures follow a now-familiar pattern: defund, destabilize, then privatize. It’s a recipe for the austerity that is being served at public universities across the country, and Queen’s is no exception. Across departments and units, people are pushing back. Groups of faculty members are speaking out and withholding their labour. Students are organizing. Staff members are refusing to accept that their labour should be expendable.

At its heart, this is not just about budgets. It’s about the soul of the university—about who gets to decide what higher education looks like and who it serves. The austerity being imposed at Queen’s is not inevitable. It is a political choice—a choice to prioritize consultants and elite partnerships over the people who make the university run.

The community is beginning to demand something different: a transparent, democratic, and equitable university that invests in people, not profits. The fight against austerity is a fight for the future of public education.

For more analysis and resources on the topics above, click the links below.

🛠️ Labour & Strikes

Austerity often hits workers first. Learn how layoffs, job precarity, and strike action shape campus life.

Tags: layoffs, strike, PSAC, CUPE, USW, QUFA, faculty, staff, unions, bargaining

💼 Corporate Consultants & Admin Growth

Private consulting firms like Nous Group shape public education policy behind closed doors — often at great cost.

Tags: Nous Group, consultants, UniForum Survey, benchmarking, Renew Project

💸 Budget Myths & Financial Spin

Queen’s says we’re in crisis — but the numbers tell a different story. Get the facts.

Tags: Budget crisis, Budget model, corporatization, ethical budgeting, provincial budget, investment income, budget surplus, Shock Doctrine, PIF

🎓 STEM-ification & the Attack on Critical Fields

Cuts to the humanities and social sciences are strategic. This is about reshaping the university to serve capital.

Tags: Bicentennial Vision, enrolment seats, humanities, STEM,

🏛️ Governance & Academic Freedom

Who really makes decisions at Queen’s — and who’s left out? We dig into university governance and its accountability gaps.

Tags: Senate, Board of Trustees, Faculty Board, academic freedom, governance, collegial governance, CAUT, Principal Deane, Provost, FAS

🧱 Privatization & Neoliberal Restructuring

From performance metrics to public-private partnerships, neoliberalism is reshaping the university’s core values.

Tags: corporatization, restructuring, education

🎒 Student Impact

Academic impacts, mental health, accessibility, housing precarity, food insecurity — austerity hits students hardest.

Tags: students, prioritize students, undergraduate students, graduate students, Students vs Cuts, student organizing