Tyler McKay | Assistant News Editor
Featured Image: A new faculty may take the place of the old. | Courtesy of Shahroze Rauf/Excalibur
At the most recent Senate meeting, a motion was put forward to merge the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) and the Department of Geography under a new banner: the Faculty of Urban and Environmental Change.
The establishment of an Interim Faculty Council was approved at this meeting as well the approval to begin preparing for the new faculty.
Notices were also put forward by the Executive Committee and the Academic Policy, Planning, and Research Committee (APPRC) that the FES and the Geography department would be “disestablished” by August 31, 2020 should the Senate, as a whole, and the Board of Governors agree to the merge.
These motions are expected to pass, as “the movers of the motion have consulted widely with the York community and been quite receptive to input from quite a diverse set of units and individuals at the university,” says Carl Ehrlich, Chair of the APPRC.
“The structure of the new faculty will not comprise departments, but it will have five programs,” says the Chair of the Department of Geography, Philip Kelly.
These programs include: Environmental Science, Sustainable Environmental Management, Urbanization, Global Geography, as well as a minor program in Environmental Arts and Justice.
“There is a lot of common ground between geography as a discipline and the type of research and teaching that happens in the FES, especially around urban social processes, migration and cultural identity, environmental science, and human-environment interactions,” adds Kelly.
The purpose of this new faculty is to “educate and train students as engaged citizens and leaders striving for a more sustainable and just world,” says the FES Dean Alice Hovorka.
The programs are aimed at “creating a critical mass of environmental scientists, able to offer a coherent program on issues of climate change, physical geography and conservation, in collaboration with colleagues in Science and Lassonde,” adds Kelly.
The idea for a merged faculty first arose in early 2016 from discussions between members of the FES and the Geography department.
“Although it has been strongly supported by the senior university administration over the last year, it started as a ‘grassroots’ idea among colleagues in both units,” notes Kelly.
FES Dean Hovorka echoes these sentiments saying there are “existing synergies in teaching, research, and engagement activities.”
There’s hope that when these programs reside in the same faculty, they can learn from each other. Fourth-year environmental studies student Frankie Condo has taken geography courses and he enjoyed the hands-on approach.
“My biggest gripe with the environmental studies courses was how little hands on experience we students get, aside from ENVS 1500 in first year,” says Condo.
“Hopefully with this merge that will change and there will be ample opportunity for students to get some in-field experience while at school.”
Students enrolled in current programs will be able to finish their degrees uninterrupted. According to Kelly, students would also be able to switch into the new programs if they so choose. If approved, the programs are set to begin in September 2020.
