The Gauntlet® Opinions - Admin not consulting students on super-faculty

The futures of four faculties-- fine arts, communication and culture, social science and humanities-- will be decided in just a few months.

The University of Calgary's proposed arts amalgamation of the four unique faculties into one super faculty was initially brought to the General Faculties Council in mid-October, with the promise of a fact book, a group of deans to examine the current structure, one staff member from each relevant faculty to act as a representative and a special faculty council meeting. This process lacks an obvious but important voice-- students.

As of yet, there has not been any special faculties meeting scheduled to discuss the change. When and if there is, the Students' Union will be invited, but that's the only place where they will be heard directly. Individual faculty student reps can approach the one staff member in charge of listening to everyone's concerns, but after that their involvement ends.

The fact book promised for the end of October has not yet been released. It will compare the current structure of the U of C to other schools and "assess" their state. Meetings thus far within faculties have had few answers for the multitude of questions.

In the end, when decision time comes around, all the concerns, questions and arguments collected will be fed back to the two men who first brought the issue forward, president Dr. Harvey Weingarten and provost Dr. Alan Harrison. Four faculty members and another four SU reps represent nearly 7,000 students.

The university needs to gather its facts before approaching faculty members and students for consultation, but more importantly, this consultation should be publicized and students should be allowed to attend. If the university fails to do so, students should voice their concerns in a way that can't be ignored.

Share this story:

Reader Comments:

Add your comment or send a letter to the editor

Posted: 2008-11-27 23:02:53
#1 - I'm a Communication Studies and Political Science student. I don't want to be an "Arts" student. I would not have come to the U of C if I would have been classified an "Arts" major, especially given the track-record this university has with regards to arts funding.

I can't even think of a better way with which to alienate studentsóand I wonder whether that's the point.

And then the university wonders why so many students are so optimistic entering the institution, and then totally unwilling to recommend it to other people upon departure. If this decision goes through, I will adamantly tell people *not* to go to this school.

I'm quite disappointed with the administration at this school. With the way this is being done, I no longer believe anyone at this school has my best interests at heart.

–∆ndrew, Writer

Posted: 2008-11-29 00:05:53
#2 - Ash, you know that any reorganization of the variety described will result an absolutely zero operational changes to the university's operations, with the exception of new letterhead and tweaked verbiage on departmental annual reports. Bigger presidents than Harvey have tried and failed to rationalize the bureaucracy at this institution, so please don't expect much of anything to happen.

–sqrt@

Posted: 2008-11-29 23:54:40
#3 - We'll see. I wonder how many Art History classes will be offered after this amalgamation...?

–∆ndrew, Writer

Posted: 2008-11-30 22:19:30
#4 - There will always be art history classes offered because the supply of jobless of fine arts graduate students in need of low-paying work is unaffected by market forces.

–sqrt@

Views expressed are those of the posters and do not necessarily reflect that of the Gauntlet.