Students and faculty voice concerns at President’s Town Hall on curriculum renewal and university’s future

By Danijela Marcinkovic with files from Anna Maxwell, February 5 2025—

On Jan. 29, students and faculty gathered in the MacEwan Student Centre for the President’s Town Hall, where President Dr. Ed McCauley, Provost Dr. Sandra Davidson, and the rest of the executive leadership team discussed the university’s Ahead of Tomorrow strategic plan for 2030.

Pre-submitted questions

The executive team addressed some of the 77 pre-submitted questions which covered  mental health, international students, research funding, space utilization and community on campus. 

Davidson stated that the university has experienced a decrease in the number of international students, which heavily impacts budgets. The U of C faces an $11-million hit due to the international enrollment drop.

“We’re working very closely with our recruiters, with our registrar and with all of our teams to really think about how we can repair, rebuild and sustain the relationships with our international communities,” said Davisdon. 

McCauley briefly mentioned his conversation with the Premier Danielle Smith, suggesting that a significant investment in research could be a promising path for Alberta.

“A big investment in research for the province of Alberta might be the way to go,” said McCauley.

Mike Van Hee — vice president of Services and Operations — discussed the university’s plans to prioritize space, such as the development of a new science building on U of C’s main campus as well as a new building at U of C’s Spyhill campus. 

“[The university] will also see a prioritization towards adapting the existing space,” he said, referring to findings that the university had lower utilization of classroom space than previously assumed.

When answering a question about the future of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) at the university, McCauley emphasized the institution’s commitment to its strategic goals. 

“Our goals are set out in our strategy, which includes community-based excellence, accessibility and a sense of belonging where we can all thrive,” said McCauley. 

“We have renewed our mental health and wellbeing strategy to have that wider focus on wellbeing and support,” stated Davidson. “We continue to invest in our mental health [since] student mental health funding hasn’t changed since 2017.”

Live question and answer period

After the executive team finished answering the pre-submitted questions, they transitioned to the floor, where members of the audience were able to ask the executive leadership team their own questions. Questions were related to program suspensions and safe spaces at the university.

Quinten Bailey, an undergraduate student in the Department of Classics and Religion (CLARE), raised concerns about the pausing of CLARE programs. His question was directed towards McCauley, asking why students have not been provided information on the closure and what the future of his education and that of the CLARE department looks like. 

“There is a website on the faculty of arts that highlights the changes and steps that are being taken,” Davidson responded.

While the Gauntlet was able to find the website that includes information on the curriculum renewal and its impact on current students, the website does not contain a plan that would answer the question posed by Bailey regarding the future of the CLARE department. 

“We want to make sure that the programming that we deliver is contemporary so that we can attract students that want to come here and invest their time and intellect into those areas,” Davidson added, suggesting that the renewal of these programs is necessary and for quality purposes. 

However, Davidson did not clarify in what ways the programs under review are outdated or lacking in quality.

Elizabeth Montes, a Spanish professor at the U of C, raised concerns regarding the suspension of programs within the School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures.

“This process was very rushed … there was no consultation,” said Montes. 

Montes also mentioned that three students were consulted on the suspension of the Spanish language program, and they all wrote a letter to Davidson but failed to receive an answer. With these concerns in mind, she raised the question of whether this suspension is serving the “community” that McCauley has emphasized. 

Davidson responded by stating that this curriculum renewal is to ensure that the needs of future students are met.

“The pause to renew is very different from the pause to closure,” Davidson added. 

Montes responded by expressing concern over the unusual nature of this current curriculum renewal process, stating that previous renewals had not required such drastic measures, like the pausing of programs.

“We have gone through a curriculum renewal before, and we never had to pause any programs,” said Montes. 

Davidson said that students who are currently enrolled in the programs being suspended will not be affected, though she did not address Montes’ comment. 

“As I indicated, the programs are being suspended [because] of the work of the renewal and our commitment to languages,” Davidson responded. “We recognize this is an important piece, not only for those who are seeing that as their pathway, and as you so rightly put, those who want to become educators of the future of languages. We want to centre the community in the future needs, making sure that what we are doing is meeting the future needs going forward.”

Thomas Ambrozaitis, a counsellor at the Student Wellness Services, asked how the leadership team plans to create a more inviting space at the university. He expressed concern about speaking out on contentious issues, citing the university’s response to pro-Palestinian encampments. Ambrozaitis also voiced fears of potential repercussions, including termination, for openly addressing such matters.

Jacqueline Lacasse, general counsel and vice-president of People and Culture, emphasized the importance of fostering an open and communicative workplace culture, stressing that meaningful change can only happen through deliberate action from leadership.

“The only way we are going to actually do this and make this an environment where people can speak up is if we start doing it and if managers and leaders actually make the time and space for that to happen,” said Lacasse.

When asked by the Gauntlet if there were any verbal assurances given to faculty, staff and students of affected programs that their programs would be reinstated after curriculum renewal, Davidson stressed that the programs were not being permanently shut down.

“I went to the Faculty of Arts Council within the last month, and it was a large group. One of the very vocal concerns was ‘You’re going to close these programs,’ and the answer is we’re not closing — we are pausing to do the renewal of the curriculum so that these programs can continue to be vibrant,” said Davidson. 

She addressed concerns about potential job losses, stating that no such decisions had been made at this time.

“The faculty association asked, ‘Are you looking at job loss?’ he said, not at this point, because the whole idea is we want these programs to have more students to be accessible and vibrant,” said Davidson. “That means we’re going to have more students coming in, and hopefully, we can hire more professors in those areas. So we tried to address those concerns, but as a leader, you can never communicate enough and anytime there is change, fear is natural.”

The Gauntlet asked Bailey how he felt about the response he got from the executive leadership team. He expressed skepticism about the administration’s transparency. 

“I feel like they didn’t give us the full story. What I’ve heard from professors is that [the response he received] is kind of what I should have expected to hear — but that the actual plan is to close down a good chunk of these programs. They said that they’re renewing them. We will have to wait and see,” he said.

Learn more about the Ahead of Tomorrow strategic plan here.