You may be aware that the Faculty of Arts is undergoing a three-year curriculum renewal process. This effectively means that curriculums for programs such as Religious Studies or Spanish are being updated, and, until that work is completed, new students will be unable to enrol.
If you're unfamiliar with these pauses to new admissions, or missed the social media update from your SU Arts Representatives, the preceding paragraph might have raised a few questions. If you're wondering things like why these programs and is a 'curriculum renewal' even a real thing, you're not alone.
Students in the affected programs were first informed about the pauses in October last year. When they told us that the Faculty of Arts poorly communicated the news—and the execution left much to be desired, too—we agreed.
Your SU Representatives and Vice-President Academic got busy working with Faculty leadership to make sure students won't be blindsided this way again. We are now pleased to announce that the Faculty of Arts Student Engagement Framework for Program Proposals went live in late March.
This Framework describes the steps that the Faculty of Arts will follow to engage with students if it ever proposes changes to programs again. You can read the full Framework here or find it later in this post, but here are the highlights:
- The Faculty will inform students, the SU, and the Faculty of Arts Students' Association of program pauses before they occur, as well as any proposed program suspensions or terminations.
- These communications will make it clear that students "will be supported in the completion of their program."
- The Faculty of Arts will provide "the rationale for the program pause or proposal"
- These announcements will strive to use "plain language."
- The Faculty of Arts will hold at least one in-person and one online consultation session with affected students.
- All students in affected programs will be invited to at least one online event and two in-person events to ask questions and provide feedback.
Of course, we know that the Framework doesn't answer the questions of what and why. That's why we're going to break down everything you might want to know about what the Faculty of Arts is doing and how we got here in the first place.
What is a Curriculum Renewal?
Every 5-7 years, the University already conducts something called a curriculum review of its programs, which is a "critical examination of [a] program for the purpose of optimizing [its] learning outcomes." A curriculum renewal is the term the Faculty of Arts is using to describe what is, essentially, a curriculum review on steroids. In other words, what we know so far is that the Faculty of Arts is planning something closer to renovations than just redecorating.
Why is the Faculty of Arts doing a curriculum renewal now?
Similar to a curriculum review, the University also conducts Unit Reviews every 5-7 years. A quality control measure, these involve a team of experts assessing an entire Faculty for areas of improvement. The experts make recommendations, which University and Faculty leadership can respond to. A final report then goes to the Academic Planning and Priorities Committee (APPC)—the academic governance body responsible for discussing Unit Reviews, but also "reviewing and approving" any changes to the University's programs. (This will come back later.)
The Faculty of Arts underwent a Unit Review in April 2024. The review identified problems with some programs ranging from low enrolment to outdated curriculums, and made suggestions on how the Faculty could maximize its resources after recently taking a 25% hit to its budget.
Why were admissions to new students paused?
By September 2024, the Faculty had paused new admissions to programs ranging from Religious Studies to Spanish. Students were not informed about the pauses until October 10th, however, and communication throughout the Faculty of Arts itself was even slower. The SU attended a Q&A session held by the Dean's Office on October 29th, during which some members of staff were surprised to learn that admissions had actually been paused two months earlier at that point.
How did students first learn about the pauses?
On October 10th, students in affected programs received an unexpected email from the Dean's Office, announcing that Arts was "embarking on a comprehensive three-year curriculum renewal process." This would involve temporarily stopping new students from enrolling in select programs so that the Faculty could focus on updating them. It would also allow the Faculty to implement the goals of its Strategic Plan, including "academic innovation… and community engagement."
If you've been following these developments, you may know have learned what a curriculum renewal is, or perhaps added the Faculty's Strategic Plan to your Goodreads list. Back in October, though, most students probably hadn't heard of either. Those who received the announcement couldn't help feeling they were missing something, even as they were assured that their "academic progress will not be disrupted".
Students asked why they hadn't been consulted first, and whether what the email really meant was that their progress wouldn't be disrupted… for now. And what was so wrong with these programs that they had to be paused, anyway? Could others be next? How would this affect teachers they liked and respected? The announcement contained none of this information, and the effect it had on readers informed our work on the Engagement Framework.
Is it true there are procedural concerns about the proposals?
Ordinarily, recommendations from Unit Reviews can be implemented without pausing admissions. The Dean's Office believes that the programs being renewed needed more urgent attention than usual. It was stated, during that October Q&A session, that some have poor retention rates, and some haven't been properly overhauled in decades. But not everyone feels that Faculty leadership acted appropriately.
The Faculty Association of the University of Calgary (TUCFA) filed a grievance alleging that the Faculty's actions violated the employment agreement between academic staff and the University's Board of Governors. You can get a better picture of the concerns raised by TUCFA by reading TUCFA's full grievance.
The SU also has related concerns. We feel it was inappropriate for pauses to start before the Unit Review reached APPC—the committee that should discuss Unit Reviews and decide on program changes. In their roles on governance committees, SU representatives have conveyed their concerns and made it clear they will address program changes on a case-by-case basis. SU support is always conditional on whether the following promises are kept:
We expect the University to make informed decisions after adequate consultation and care for both students and staff. We support TUCFA in their efforts to ensure that procedure is followed and encourage the University to fully and meaningfully address TUCFA's concerns.
How do you know that current students will be able to graduate?
We intend to hold the University to its promise that all current students will be able to graduate, but students should know that they also have Government of Alberta's guidelines on their side. Only the Minister of Advanced Education can grant permission for Albertan public post-secondaries to pause admissions to a program for over two years. This is officially known as a suspension. When reviewing applications to suspend, the Minister considers the guiding principles of the Campus Alberta Quality Council—the first of which is to prioritize the best interests of learners.
Institutions must therefore perform certain actions before the province allows long-term suspension. Namely, they must show the steps they will take, or have taken, to ensure "current students [can] complete their programs... during the period of suspension." The guidelines cover a number of eventualities, too: institutions must have "contingency plans" in the event that students need to retake a program requirement.
How do you know that the programs won't be terminated?
The Faculty of Arts has assured the SU that it is not suspending programs to wind them down—only to update them. This is another thing that the University must have shown in its representations to the Government of Alberta. When post-secondaries seek approval from the Ministry of Advanced Education to suspend a program for more than two years, they must fill out an application letter. In this letter, they are directed to clearly state whether the suspension will be temporary or permanent. Only the Minister has the power to terminate a post-secondary program, and, in doing so, the Minister must again be satisfied that the best interests of learners remain at the heart of the plan.
Why didn’t the Faculty of Arts include all this information in their initial communications to students?
Your SU Faculty of Arts Representatives first put this on the record to Faculty leadership directly in November 2024. They shared "substantial concerns" with the use of language that was more intuitive to university administrators than students, and how even a sentence distinguishing suspensions from terminations would have shown students that their programs weren't in limbo. This view guided the SU's work to ensure the Engagement Framework recognizes that students deserve to understand why decisions affecting them are made.
I have too many tabs open already - can you show me the full Engagement Framework?
Guiding Principles
Timing and Accessibility
- Notification of upcoming program pauses, and proposed suspensions and terminations will be provided via email to the SU president, SU VP Academic, SU Arts representatives, and FASA president and FASA VP academic alongside email notification to current students in the affected programs, which will include the following information:
- As noted in the University of Calgary Calendar, “students previously admitted to a [paused or] suspended program will be supported in the completion of their program.”
- Students who have been shadowing [1] a program prior to its pause or suspension can reach out to the Associate Dean (Academic) to request admission to the program.
- There will be multiple opportunities for student engagement and feedback, which will inform the proposal under development
- That students can reach out directly to the Associate Dean (Academic) with any questions or concerns
- The timeline of student engagement and feedback opportunities
- Student consultations on program proposals will occur after notification of current students in the affected program(s) takes place and will occur early enough to ensure feedback can inform development of the program proposal.
- Consultations will consider:
- academic schedule (i.e., start/end of term, term break, final exams etc.);
- students’ familiarity with Faculty of Arts and University of Calgary governance process;
- accessibility of the location/format;
- the governance review and approval timeline.
[1] Shadowing is when a student is taking courses within a different major than their own with the intent to change programs to that major in the future
Transparency
The Faculty of Arts will communicate:
- the rationale for the program pause or proposal;
- a response that summarizes the feedback (“what we heard”) and how it has influenced the final proposal. Initial feedback will be appended to the proposal in advance of CARC with a summary of additional feedback received throughout the consultation process to be appended to the proposal prior to APS.
Inclusive Opportunities for Participation
- All students in the affected programs will be invited to participate in the consultation process, which will include at least one online and two in-person opportunities to ask questions and provide feedback; students must be given at least two-week deadline to provide online feedback and at least one week and ideally two weeks’ notice of any in-person consultation session.
- All students will have an opportunity to bring forward their questions and concerns.
- Sharing information and involving students in the consultation process is intended to build positive relationships.
Core Components
- Student email and survey, both of which will strive to use plain language
- One presentation to FASA council
- At least one in-person and one online consultation sessions with affected students in a town hall format
- At least one in-person consultation session with the Faculty of Arts student population using a town hall format (ensuring adequate space for full participation)
- Program proposals to be distributed to SU and FASA representatives at least five business days prior to CARC
- Location and times for Student Engagement Events to be shared with SU and FASA representatives and students via email, as well as on the Faculty of Arts Instagram, Facebook, X(Twitter), and D2L pages
Hopefully, you'll now feel like you know everything there is to know about the Arts Curriculum Renewal. (Don't worry—there won't be an exam.) The SU will continue to monitor and respond to the situation as it develops.
For now, we like the Engagement Framework so much that we'll be encouraging other Faculties to follow in Arts' footsteps. We also invite students to tell us what they think. You can also reach out to us with questions you may have about anything written here. Contact your Vice-President Academic or Faculty of Arts Representatives using the information below.
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Vice-President Academic |
Faculty of Arts Representatives |
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suvpaca@ucalgary.ca |
arts1@su.ucalgary.ca arts2@su.ucalgary.ca arts3@su.ucalgary.ca arts4@su.ucalgary.ca |