The faculty of arts is one of the largest faculties at the University of Ottawa. But students, both undergraduate and graduate, have been plagued by budget cuts, poor course availability and the suspension of the school of translations.
Faculty of Arts
Missing Café Alt? The Faculty of Arts has a new digital hotspot for questions, concerns, and peer interaction.
After the faculties of social sciences and engineering at the University of Ottawa both implemented similar measures, the faculty of arts will give undergraduate students the choice, after receiving their final course mark, of having ‘satisfactory’ or ‘not satisfactory’ appear on their transcript rather than an alphanumeric grade.
The faculty of arts at the University of Ottawa is closing buildings to students by this Monday due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with some already locked earlier this week. If necessary, staff and professors will be able to continue to access some of the buildings.
Several University of Ottawa students pushed for immediate action on improving the school’s mental health system at a town hall discussion for the faculty of arts on Wednesday, with many asking president Jacques Frémont for concrete next steps on how he plans to address the situation.
With 493 signatures, the petition called for a compromise from the U of O to meet the needs of its music students, stating that the two-week building closure was, “an unacceptable amount of time given our near complete reliance on this space for practice studios and access to instruments.
The recent loss of the Brooks residence is unfortunate, but it has given the university an opportunity to fix a problem that desperately needs to be addressed: modernization of the U of O’s arts building.
The program is designed to cultivate team-building, look at different methods of inquiry, and explore entrepreneurship with creativity and reflexive thinking.
But the new space is only one small part of a proposed network of coworking hubs across campus, a physical development that reflects McDougall’s plans for the arts programs as a whole.
The Faculty of Arts, then, doesn’t seem to be in a hopeless situation after all. Though enrolment numbers have fallen sharply, there are ground-breaking initiatives and promising partnerships in the works to grow the faculty and make it a leader in the humanities in Canada.
In 2007, the Faculty of Arts had 6,250 full-time and part-time undergraduate students. Enrolment for the Faculty of Arts peaked in 2010 at 6,637 students, something that Stacey attributes to the ‘double cohort’ when Grade 13 was phased out. Enrolment in the arts now sits at 4,699 students as of 2016, a drop of over 1,000 students from 2014.
The Faculty of Art’s Dean talks to the Fulcrum about the value of an arts degree and it’s worth after graduation.
From a broader perspective, it seems like these recent program restructuring plans are part of an ongoing attempt by the university administration to convert our liberal arts institution into a vocational school.
The University of Ottawa’s oldest faculty celebrates 125 years since it first opened its doors to students with an art exhibit entitled “125 Years: An exhibition,” on display now.
