“We don’t want it to be a conflict”: Students react to Faculty of Arts pausing admissions to select programs

By Daman Singh, November 20 2024—

On Oct. 10, the Faculty of Arts at the University of Calgary sent out emails to students in select programs outlining a curriculum renewal. The Gauntlet was made aware of the notices by students in the undergraduate faculty of Ancient and Medieval History and the Graduate faculty of Photography who shared the emails with us.

The emails were identical in content, outlining that the Faculty of Arts will be going through a “comprehensive” three-year curriculum renewal process. The administration made note that the renewal is part of the University’s Ahead of Tomorrow strategy and the Faculty of Arts strategic plan, being focused on, “academic innovation, sustainability and community engagement.”

Following, the email read that new admissions to programs being put under renewal will be paused. No date for resuming admissions was mentioned. 

The emails also clarify that current students will not be affected by these changes and they will receive the education they expect — without their academic progress being disrupted. Further emphasising these changes do not mean any effect on the offerings of courses in these subjects. For example, courses in Greek and Roman Studies will be offered while admissions are frozen.

Lastly, the emails ended with a survey for the students. The surveys were anonymous and designed to hear from the program’s students about the renewal. 

The administration shared with us the notice of renewal sent out to faculty members. While the core message remained unchanged, the level of detail was a stark difference from what the students received— drawing the question of why the information was held from students. 

The faculty notices included comprehensive reasoning as to why the programs are being paused. For example, faculty in School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures (SLLLC) was notified that one of the reasons for the freeze was fluctuating student demand.

From the Dean’s Office: What prompted the renewal?

In an interview with the Gauntlet, Dean of Arts Dr. Aoife MacNamara explained the curriculum renewal and answered some of our primary concerns about the changes.

MacMamara emphasized this renewal is an ambitious project that they have undertaken owing to the fact that these programs haven’t been updated since the 70’s. She cited the popularity of some 200-level programs and the lack thereof at the senior level courses, resulting in a lack of majors in the program, as one of the reasons that prompted this discussion. One key informing question was to understand why this decline happened.

“If you’re committed to excellence, what you want to do is make sure that programs are always responding to, collaborating and co-creating with students and communities,” said MacNamara. 

Recognizing the amount of work that would go into fixing this issue, the faculty decided to pause admissions. This pause is to provide the faculty and students a chance to engage with the community and do consultation. The longest they expect the pauses to remain in effect is two years, which includes the time to have the ideas and renewal run by governance.

“We don’t really have the resources to be able to run parallel programs. So if we keep admitting people will have to fund all of that program, plus develop and start a new program, and it’s a lot,” stated MacNamara. 

Reiterating that only admissions to majors is paused. MacNamara told us that classes in these programs will not be affected, neither will the minors. She also touched on the fact that Classics and Ancient and Medivial History are working on a combined offering.

MacNamara gave an example of a similar precedent of freezing admissions in Art and Art History. 

Reflecting on history, MacNamara gave an example of a similar precedent of freezing admissions in Art and Art History. 

“It’s got new faculty, and it’s a really successful program because it did that work. It really did the work of going ‘what is it that we can do that’s going to really make this a meaningful experience for students who’ll be able to use it going ahead,’” said MacNamara.

When asked about the possibility of these programs not being offered again in the future, MacNamara hesitated to give a definitive answer owing to the uncertainty of how the programs will change after consultations and renewal. 

“It may well be that they’ll have something slightly different or a different version. What we can say with confidence is those subject areas and academic disciplines and fields will still be offered, but they may well be offered in ways that we haven’t seen yet before something new,” stated MacNamara. 

Closing off, MacNamara reaffirmed that the faculty is hoping to work with students to create a new generation of curricula and hoped that people embrace the renewal.

“We need to make sure that we have programs that will set our students up to do the difficult work ahead, to be thinkers, people with imagination and creativity and ambition”, said MacNamara.

On Oct. 30, in response to all the questions raised by the emails the Dean’s office held a consultation session with the Dean of Arts and Dr. Melissa Boyce, Associate Dean (Academic). The consultation was meant to clear confusion and to answer any questions that students posed on the renewal.

In a statement with the Gauntlet, current undergraduate students Charlotte Dover and Chris Schmitz talked about their experience at the consultation. They wished the consultation was longer, but did find it helpful to get some clarity. 

Schmitz expressed their concerns with the renewal potentially affecting their graduate school experience as the faculty noted they will be revising some upper-level classes. Dover noted that faculty contradicted themselves in the consultation. 

“They pushed back a little on this, but they essentially said they want to expand our upper-level classes,” said Schmitz. “Then also during the consultation —  they said that’s not what they wanted to do. So it’s not fully clear what they want to do,” continued Dover. 

Overall, they reiterated the same information the Gauntlet was told earlier except in regards to the minors. Schmitz told us that minors to some programs are being paused, which wasn’t what the Gauntlet was told. 

“I don’t know how much this is going to publicize, but they also paused admissions to the Greek and Latin minors and our South Asian Studies minors,” stated Schmitz. 

What the students have to say

The Gauntlet conducted interviews with student group Agora and the Faculty of Arts Students’ Association (FASA) cross referencing the information we received from the university and understanding their stance on the renewal.

Charlotte Dover, president of Agora, reflected on her primary thoughts upon receiving the email. She touched on the fact that students did not foresee the change, going as far as to say that the email was “shocking” to receive. Dover emphasized that while it was made clear that current students won’t be affected, there was still a lack of clarity in their messaging.

“The email just kind of felt short. I wish it had a little bit more of ‘why’, or a little bit more resources at that point. I know it was still early on. They may have not had those, but the fact that there wasn’t really any way or any message of— ‘you can reach out here’— everyone was just a bit confused,” said Dover. 

FASA was made aware of these emails the day of. President Luis Sanchez-Diaz and Vice President External Gia-Thu Phan Nguyen stated that their first step of action was to get correspondence with Associate Dean Dr. Dawn Johnston regarding the emails to ensure FASA was getting accurate information. 

Nguyen talked about his experience with an Ask Me Anything session the faculty hosted on Oct. 29 for students to present any questions and concerns. He asked the faculty about the history of curriculum renewals in the faculty. The faculty administration confirmed that this a first for the department since its inception.

Sanchez-Diaz echoed Dover’s statement with regards to not foreseeing the renewal and the concerns it sparked within the students.

“We received the information from the students who were concerned about what this entailed,” said Sanchez-Diaz. “Some of them were very emotionally distressed because they didn’t know what impacts this was going to have on their own degrees.” 

Dover moved to talk about student conversations with regards to the curriculum renewal and paused admissions. She expressed a common student concern about lack of clarity and wished that the process would be more transparent. 

“It just feels like there’s kind of a veil, almost. It’s very secretive,” said Dover.

Since the administration put ‘co-created’ learning at the forefront of the renewal process, Dover highlighted her experience with the consultation on Oct 30. Again, noting that she found the consultation to be too short and mostly about what’s happening, not much on the ‘how’ of the renewal. She did inform us that following the consultation on Oct. 30, there were two more consultations planned with the same goal in mind. 

FASA on the other hand have only had little communication with the university, the most important of which was the Ask Us Anything held by the administration on Oct. 29. Nguyen was present at the session and raised questions to understand what the process meant. The administration reiterated similar information to what the Gauntlet had been told. 

“A curriculum renewal is a very ambitious and complicated project that [administration] are trying to embark on as part of their strategic plan till 2029. What they’re trying to do is completely revamp these programs and also clear out what they call ‘inefficiencies’ in the majors,” stated Nguyen.

Sanchez-Diaz stated that FASA was not invited to the consultation. They were part of a unit review that happened a few months ago but nothing specifically related to this consultation, stating that FASA wasn’t asked to consult with students.

“We have met with the Associate Dean, Dr Johnston. We were briefed on what the next steps were going to be, what the information actually was and what the process was going to look like. But aside from that, we have not been consulted on these specific curriculums,” said Sanchez-Diaz. 

Nguyen echoed the Dean’s message about a website being set up to gather information concerning the curriculum renewal. However, he expressed his concerns with their experience communicating with the faculty, reflecting on the with the unit review earlier in the year. 

“In our personal experience as faculty executives, we have always been frustrated by a lack of constant and transparent communication,” said Nguyen. 

“We really want, like, more meaningful engagement with students, because this curriculum renewal project is something very important to the Faculty of Arts until 2029—their strategic plan,” continued Nguyen.

Dover expressed her thoughts as to why CLARE was the first program targeted under the curriculum renewal, citing lack of admissions to the program and revising the meaning of what the program could mean — to make it more inclusive of other cultures, rather than just Greek and Roman studies. 

“There’s kind of been a talk within the space of ‘what can we do to keep on sustaining this field and move it into the next century’, which is not an easy conversation,” said Dover. 

When asked if they felt that the admission freezes were necessary, Sanchez-Diaz expressed concern, outlining the issue of preventing students from coming to UCalgary for these programs, but also understanding that the renewal would not be enacted properly if students have already been promised a particular structure. He also expressed fear around the lack of clarity as to when admissions would begin again.

“My fear would be that there would be a disconnect between current students in the program, who have actually experienced it, who have built a community amongst those members and the incoming students coming into a totally different, new environment,” stated Sanchez-Diaz.

Closing off, Nguyen hoped that the faculty holds more meetings and consultations with students to make processes more accessible and transparent. Dover echoed the same idea about more transparency.

“We don’t want it to be a conflict. We don’t want it to be us versus them. We’re not against admissions or the dean. We just simply ask to have a little bit more information,” stated Dover.

More information about the renewal can be found on this website.