News in Review

By: Sydney Umstead, News Editor 

Editor’s note, 

Thank you for your readership and support in navigating the stories we published over the course of this year, and every year. 

I know it may be a bit abstract to put a goodbye in the news, but I feel I needed a one-on-one with all of you. A final hoorah, if you will. 

Serving as News Editor of The Griffin for the past two years is something I will forever be grateful for. I couldn’t have done it without everyone on the staff. The kindness, wisdom, and friendship they have given me is something that I feel privileged to even be a part of. None of these articles would have been possible without the tremendous work, grace and intelligence of our Editor-in-Chief, Ava C. Green, and Managing Editor, Jon Dusza. Both have shared in every bit of reporting, worry and excitement that came from the editions we have all created as a community. My gratitude is beyond any words I could muster. The articles in News would not have been what they are without them, and I truly mean that. 

A special thank you to Delaney Hayden, the assistant news editor, who has been an amazing right-hand man these past two years. 

What follows are updates regarding some of the stories we have covered and potential topics in the semesters to come. 

The Library 

The Andrew L. Bouwhuis library has been a topic of much discussion over the course of this year. 

The Griffin first covered the reconstruction of the library in the Sept. 13 edition. The renovations were set to begin that same month; however, the renderings for the plan were just released in the April 4 edition. 

A new Student Success Center will be placed in the library, replacing the Griff Center for Student Success that is located in OM 013. 

The work is set to begin over the summer, while 88,000 books have been removed from the library in the process.  

In the April 4 edition, The Griffin reported that “the library will email students about changes in library policy in the future, such as the library’s recent moving of DVDs into storage.” 

The renovations come from a $1 million grant that the university received in July 2024. 

The Griffin reported that students from the philosophy department had launched a rescue mission for the books, placing them inside vacant office rooms – where former department professors were – on the philosophy department floors. Following that article the administration asked for the books to be removed from the empty spaces because people would be moving into those offices. However, only one office has been occupied by a staff member. 

The renovations are set to officially begin over the summer. 

    On-Campus Renovations

WBFO reported on April 22 that Canisius is working with the Erie County Industrial Development Agency to obtain a $55 million bond which would be used towards renovating Old Main. 

The Griffin reported in Jan. 2024, that Old Main would undergo floor-to-floor renovations of the building. 

The process of doing so was set to take place during the summer of 2024, but that had never come to fruition. 

The drafted plans for the project were an act of “framing [the] art of the possible,” President Stoute had said at the time. 

The bond through the Erie County Development Agency would be “a more innovative, engaging academic experience for everyone,” Stoute said in an interview with WBFO. 

“Work is underway on the first two classrooms, and they will be used as a litmus test for both students and faculty,” reported WBFO. 

The Science Center (Science Hall) is reportedly also tentatively going to undergo renovations, with the total cost accumulating a little over $15 million, including the renovations to the library. 

  Institutional Sustainability Task Force 

The Griffin first reported on the announcement of the Institutional Sustainability Task Force in November. The task force began with the mission of cutting $15 million from the budget, and it is composed of multiple members from different parts of the campus community, including one current student and one graduate student. 

In “Last Week in Senate: the Canisius Institutional Sustainability Task Force,” published in The Griffin on Feb. 28, it was noted that Anthony Habib, Board of Trustees member, “addressed the cuts to faculty which took place in 2020, which cut 25 faculty members, and said that the Institutional Sustainability Task Force is operating differently than Canisius did in 2020.” 

“We are not talking about doing wholesale layoffs at all,” Habib said. “In fact, I told the faculty senate, one of our goals is to increase their salaries. We want to maintain a really good faculty for you,” he continued.

The task force was set to publish their plans in March; however, there has not been a formal update yet due to “the process of implementing recommendations,” The Griffin reported. 

In another article this week, The Griffin has reported on the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program that has been rolled out in partnership with the task force. 

   Teach-In 

The Griffin reported on the demonstration and teach-in regarding the $15 million cuts from the budget on Nov. 1. During this time, “Some of these signs [could] still be seen in the windows of Churchill Tower, and as of Wednesday morning, fliers with a QR code link to the televised stories have begun appearing on campus. However, reports suggest that these same fliers are also being removed from their various locations,” The Griffin reported. This article followed a document published by the AAUP that appeared around campus. 

All of this occurred while Canisius was up for Middle States accreditation. As of the publishing of this article, no announcement has been made about whether or not the university has been reaccredited. 

Sources close to The Griffin report that any document from the Faculty Senate may have to be sent to higher administration to be reviewed before going to the Board of Trustees. However, it is unclear if there is a policy in place for how faculty and trustees can communicate. 

According to the practices of shared governance, which have been reported on frequently this year, faculty, trustees, and administrators must be able to be in communication with each other. 

Public Safety

In the article “Last Week In Senate: Giving Day,” The Griffin reported that public safety is operating with one officer per shift. 

Dr. Harold Fields, vice president for student affairs, stated that safety remains the top priority. 

“The university is currently addressing several vacant positions that have impacted our staffing levels. Like many other institutions and organizations, we have faced challenges providing competitive wages to retain staff for these essential roles,” he said. 

Strategies have been put in place as a way to mitigate the decrease in officers, including instituting a peace officer academy on campus as a way to bring in new officers and “engaging a third-party security company to provide additional security personnel to maintain campus security operations,” Fields said. 

The Health Science building currently requires students to swipe in at all hours of the day. Science Hall and Old Main have not yet begun that process, and it is unclear if they have plans to. 

In 2023, it was reported that public safety would stop escorting students home at night on campus. The Griffin reported that “while the cause of the change in policy is not clear, the change happened and is apparently here to stay regardless.”