SLC discusses arts renewal ahead of GFC, raises concerns over academic advising and approves Review Board appointments
By Elaine Liang, February 7 2026—
The Students’ Legislative Council (SLC) met on Feb. 3 to discuss the renewal process within the Department of Classics and Religion (CLARE) for the upcoming General Faculties Council (GFC) meeting, the academic advising offices and the appointments of Review Board members.
Arts renewal to be discussed at GFC
VP Academic Gabriela Dziegelewska presented the discussion items for the GFC meeting on Feb. 5.
“The first item that’s coming is recommendation of the closure of the Department of Classics and Religion in the arts,” Dziegelewska said. “Essentially, CLARE is getting split up and the department itself is being dissolved. Classics is going under the History department, and Religions is going under the Philosophy department.”
“The faculty members of both of those departments collectively decided which departments they wanted to get rehomed to, so this shouldn’t really be controversial. In terms of students being affected by this, the programs are not changing. They’re just moving their home departments so there’s no disruption to the actual offerings or how those are delivered,” Dziegelewska stated.
Dziegelewska explained how the arts academic advising will be affected by the renewal process.
“In arts, the way advising works is [that] it’s based on pods. Different programs will be part of advising pods. With CLARE, advising will not be affected because CLARE’s already in the same advising pod as Philosophy and History. No changes will be required there so we generally don’t have any concerns with this item,” Dziegelewska said.
Membership distribution of the GFC will also be changing. “The Cumming School of Medicine is gaining a seat [and] the Faculty of Arts is losing a seat. This is just based on population sizes,” Dziegelewska said.
Academic advising review
The next discussion item of the SLC meeting was a consultation on the academic advising offices and resources.
“One of my goals was to get the university to do a comprehensive review of all advising offices on campus…[the university is] working on it,” Dziegelewska said. “Student consultation is supposed to be a part of it. However, this is going to last more than four months, being the ending of our terms. So, I wanted to do some preliminary consultation with SLC to see if councillors have any feedback on their faculties’ advising offices.”
“[The Haskayne advising] seems to be a lot better than a lot of the other faculties,” said Haskayne Faculty Representative Joey Szasz. “One area for improvement, which might be a theme across many faculties, is students who are in dual degrees often have a very hard time coordinating between [faculties]…so if there was some more standardized protocol in those cases, that would probably be really helpful for a lot of dual degree students.”
Werklund Faculty Representative Sarah Yee agreed with Szasz’s statement. “There are some students who are finding there is misinformation [about required courses] being given,” Yee said.
Faculty of Science Representative Abdu Negmeldin commented on the Science Advising office. “I have been told by many students that oftentimes, the people who work at the front desk simply are not equipped with the information to answer their questions. [Students] are left to come back at a different time…but then the bookings are always filled for months. [This] is not beneficial to their questions, which are usually time-sensitive. Specifically, [this happens] around the start of the semester [when students] need to figure out the drop deadline,” Negmeldin stated.
Faculty of the School of Architecture and Landscape Planning (SAPL) Matthew Moreau spoke on SAPL’s advising. “I think we have really good advising at SAPL. From what I’ve heard from a lot of students is [that] they were able to receive the support that they need in a really timely manner. Our main advisor… won the Global Advising Award for Best Advisor…so we have lots of good support and I think [SAPL advising has] a really good model with what they’re doing,” Moreau said.
Faculty of Arts Representative Mahad Rzain spoke about the Arts advising office. “[During] peak times… the arts advising office may be closed, and this can be a bit difficult because usually students will find this out once they desire an appointment,” Rzain said.
“The arts advising is very flexible. They offer different options, in-person appointments, virtual appointments [and] over-the-phone advising,” Rzain stated. “However, it can be very difficult to navigate…all the different options.”
Review Board appointments
The Students’ Union (SU) Review Board appointments were the final topic discussed at the meeting. There are currently two vacancies–a student member and a non-student member.
“The Review Board is an independent arms-length committee of SLC and is tasked with hearing appeals to SU decisions or policy interpretations. Members of the Review Board are appointed in two-year terms and the makeup is five students, two non-students and two positions that can be taken up by either a student or a non-student,” President Naomie Bakana said.
“Something that the SU has been trying to do is seek out more legal support on the Review Board, which is why the recommendation for the non-student position is somebody who has the legal background,” Bakana said.
Branden Cave is the recommended candidate for the vacant non-student position. Cave is a legal associate with over four years of experience advising on civil and constitutional matters, governance, and dispute resolution.
The recommended candidate for the student position is Maaz Saleh.
“Should SLC approve these [appointments], then the Review Board will have enough members to pursue their work, but if not, they won’t be able to meet quorum,” said Bakana.
Following discussion, SLC voted in favour of the appointments.
For more information on upcoming SLC meetings and agendas, visit the SU website.