Grad Students Press for Answers
Cancellation of Grad Options Did Not “Follow the Process,” Faculty Says
On Friday, February 21, Professor Jim Engle-Warnick, the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the Faculty of Arts, met with concerned students regarding the cancellation of the graduate option in Gender and Women’s Studies.
During this meeting, students expressed their concerns regarding the cancellation of the option and the lack of other gender studies graduate programs available to them. In response, Warnick clarified that the email announcing the cancellation of this option, as well as the Development Studies option, had been retracted as it didn’t “follow the process” required to perform such an action, including a consultation process. When asked how the email was sent without going through proper processes, Warnick explained that his colleague was responsible and he could not “address the sending of [the email].”
Following this interaction, students felt frustrated and confused about the future of the program. An anonymous undergraduate student told the Daily, “if the purpose of the meeting was to assuage our worries about the future of the Graduate Option, then it failed.” The Gender, Sexuality, Feminist, and Social Justice Studies Student
Association (GSFSSA) shared a Facebook post following the meeting, saying “last week’s last-minute meeting with the associate dean, Jim Warwick, left us feeling frustrated and exhausted,” and encouraging members of the McGill community to attend the Faculty of Arts Advisory Council Meeting on Tuesday, February 24.
One student also expressed discontent with the way that conversations about the option were occurring, saying that “the administration’s attitude towards the graduate option, particularly its lack of consideration of the voices of those within the program, must be considered as operating within a larger continuum of neglect of the [Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies (IGSF)] and other sites of knowledge-making at this university. One cannot disentangle the cavalier treatment of the Graduate Option from the university’s reliance on underpaid adjunct labour to teach the very courses/program(s) we are aiming to protect, the universitywide underrepresentation of BIPOC scholars in tenured positions, and the general devaluing of intellectual labour at this institution.”
On Tuesday, February 24, the Faculty of Arts Advisory Council held the aforementioned meeting to address concerns regarding the Graduate Options. At this meeting, Professor Michael Fronda, Associate Dean for Academic Administration and Oversight, clarified that the graduate options were not being suspended.
At the meeting, Professor Alanna Thain, IGSF Associate Member and former Director of the IGSF, presented a draft proposal for an Ad Hoc M.A. in Gender, Sexuality, Feminist, and Social Justice Studies. In her presentation, she explained the importance of the co-existence of the Option and the specialized M.A., reaffirming that the IGSF is committed to the Graduate Option as it “ensures that equitable access to
GSFS subjects is widely available to students across the Faculty of Arts.”
Following Thain’s presentation, there was a period for member questions. At this time, the chair of the Faculty of Arts Advisory Council, Dean of the Faculty of Arts Antonia Maioni, stated that no questions had been submitted 24 hours prior to the meeting, but that she would still accept questions. Graduate student representatives to the Council disputed this, asserting that they had submitted questions before the deadline and had been rejected by the secretary. Once the Chair granted permission for the graduate representatives to ask questions, one asked how the Faculty will ensure that processes will remain respected moving forward. The representative then asked how they will ensure that graduate students and faculty will be consulted properly. To this, Professor Lucy Lach, Associate Dean of Student Affairs i n the Faculty of Arts, said that the Faculty has l earned a lot from this issue and will commit to a consultation process with students and faculty directly involved in the programs moving forward.
Other questions regarding the implementation of new interdisciplinary M.A. programs in Development Studies and the IGSF, as well as the future of the Graduate Options, were raised by a number of members, but the Deans answered that they cannot predict the process, particularly when it comes to dealing with the Quebec government.
“The administration’s attitude towards the Graduate Option [...] must be considered as operating within a larger continuum of neglect.”
[The Faculty] will commit to a consultation process with students and faculty directly involved in the programs moving forward.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 5:35 p.m. The next meeting of the Advisory Council is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, March 31. At the time of publication, it is unclear whether the meeting will go forward in the light of current class cancellations due to health concerns from COVID-19.