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An Open Letter to UPEI Students, Faculty, and Staff
Posting Date(s)
The recent events surrounding the proposed changes to the University of
Prince Edward Island’s Faculty of Arts have raised serious concerns both on
and off campus. An email from Interim Dean of Arts, Nebojsa Kujundzic, was
sent to his faculty proposing a plan of amalgamating the existing fifteen
departments into four “clusters”. Unfortunately, this sparked concern and
left more questions than answers.
As the Student Union, we feel the need to remind all parties that each and
every decision made on this campus affects our students. The challenge of
balancing the budget has been a topic of conversation since the 3% cut to
the operating grant from the province last year. From our perspective both
as student representatives, and students ourselves, we know there has been
ample opportunity in the past year for both preliminary discussion and
consultation surrounding the future of the Faculty of Arts.
Fragmented messaging from senior administration at UPEI, coupled with the
response from faculty in the form of a very public call to action without
all the necessary information, has created confusion and propagated
misinformation among students. A discussion about the future of the Faculty
of Arts could have been a very positive and healthy collaboration between
students, faculty, and senior administration; however, our present
circumstances do not reflect such a reality.
We ask that all employees of the university, whether they be faculty
members, support staff, or senior administration, remind themselves that
every decision, every action, and every choice being made should contribute
positively to the students of UPEI and the institution itself. We feel that
there is still an opportunity to foster healthy, positive, and open debate
about necessary and beneficial changes made to the Faculty of Arts and look
forward to actively participating in these conversations.
Kate VanGerven
President, UPEI Student Union
president@upeisu.ca