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Dean's Blog – What Can an Interim Dean Do in One Year?

Catherine Khordoc (Chris Roussakis/ for National Post)

(Note that this blog is a modified and shortened version of the welcome address delivered on Friday, September 11, to the FASS Faculty Board and FASS staff)

Since accepting the position of Interim Dean, I’ve been giving considerable thought about what my mission should be while filling this role for a year. How much can one really accomplish in one year? How much should someone try to accomplish, in one year, when she is mainly providing a bridge from one dean to the next? Is this a year when I should be satisfied simply holding down the fort? While I don’t feel it is my role to commit the faculty to any radical new initiatives or directions, I would like to make a contribution over the course of the year that is beyond the one of simply saying, “Okay, you can have a new Contract Instructor position”, or yes, “FASS will support the organization of this conference…”

A few weeks ago, Associate Dean Susan Whitney and I met with our Recruitment team, including a large number of recent graduates who are working as student recruiters for the fall. They’ll be criss-crossing the province and indeed the entire country, telling high school students about the great programs that are offered at Carleton, and all the fantastic reasons why they should consider applying to, and attending Carleton. There are many messages that I want our recruiters to take to prospective students, but I would also like them to inspire and encourage students who are considering studying in the Arts and Social Sciences. I would like our recruiters to talk to prospective students about the value of studying in the Arts and Social Sciences, and to move beyond the question of “What can I do with a BA?” or, “What I can do if I study Music, or Sociology, or History…?”

We all know that there are plenty of things that you can do with a BA, and in fact, the vast majority of BA graduates do find fulfilling and meaningful careers. I would like our student recruiters to tell prospective students a few other things:

First, you have to discover what you are passionate about. What are your recurring questions and long-standing interests? If you are excited about what you are studying, you will succeed in your studies, and you will then also be interested in seizing opportunities in and around this area – research opportunities, coop placements, part-time work, even something as simple as talking with your professors. These are some of the pieces that help students build up the experiences, skills, and interests that gradually give shape to a career path.

Second, going to university isn’t only about getting a job. Of course, getting a good job is important. We want young people be productive citizens, and we certainly do not want them to be unemployed after they graduate. However, studying, especially in the Arts and Social Sciences, is about more than just getting a job. It is about exploring our humanity, in all of its dimensions, it’s about understanding our past, our present, our future, our ways of thinking through problems, and evolving socially, culturally, and politically. I do believe that when students come out of university with a degree in the Arts and Social Sciences – and in other disciplines as well, they are better citizens, who will contribute in diverse ways to all aspects of society – as neighbours and community builders, as parents, as volunteers, as organizers of political, social, and cultural programs and activities, as writers of op-eds pieces, as organizers of protests, and the list goes on…

So when some people suggest that the STEM disciplines have value because they train students for particular jobs or career paths, I would like to argue that the Arts and Social Sciences are of value indeed because they do not train you for any one specific job or career, but that they educate for the very broad range of challenges that life will bring you, including obtaining diverse jobs and careers.

Shortly after our meeting with the Recruiting team, I came to realize that what I would like to work towards, during my one-year term as Interim Dean, is changing the currently dominating message that questions the value of the Arts and Social Sciences. I’ve also started to see how, over the past several years, this is indeed what I’ve been trying to do in different ways. While chairing the BA Panel — Phase II, a few years ago, one of the most important things we concluded is that the BA is not broken, and we stated this explicitly right at the start of our report. What needs to change, we determined, is the dominating messaging that surrounds the BA these days. Too often, we’ve been hearing in the media and from our elected officials that it is a waste of time and a waste of money to study in the Arts & Social Sciences.

That tide is slowly changing and we are seeing the occasional headline and article asserting the importance of the Arts and Social Sciences. Only a week ago, the President of the University of Windsor described, in an op-ed piece in the Globe and Mail, the risks of ignoring the liberal arts. It is crucial, at this stage, to ensure that the tide fully changes, and not assume that the change has sufficient momentum to keep swinging in the right direction. So while I am hoping that our student recruiters will help us change the discourse, and being at the front lines, speaking to students and parents on a daily basis, they are, well-placed to do so, I feel that it is also my responsibility to pursue and promote this objective of changing the message that unfairly judges the value of the Arts and Social Sciences. A year is not a very long time, but it seems to me that it is by taking small steps, like stating unambiguously that the BA is not broken, or by telling our student recruiters that the BA is not just about a job, by disseminating our research not only to our peers, but also to different audiences, by talking to our students, current and future, and keeping in touch with our alumni (to name only a few strategies, though of course, there are many more), that we might just be able to make some change that will slowly build up into a real change in how our disciplines are perceived by the public and decision-makers.

Without a doubt I’ll continue to talk and write more about this issue, either here in this blog, or elsewhere.