Faculty of Arts

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.

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.

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 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.

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.