Arts faculty and students need stable spaces to work

The turmoil that the faculty of arts experienced during the winter semester hasn’t ceased. After months of construction, the Humanities Centre (HC) is finally recovering from the electrical fire in December 2023. However, the University of Alberta still plans to vacate the building. This decision means relocating the faculty of arts and its services once again. At this point, it’s clear that the university doesn’t care about providing a convenient, centralized, and stable space for its arts staff and students.

This trend of neglect became apparent after the electrical fire. During that time, the U of A left the arts faculty without office space for weeks. Katherine Binhammer, a professor in the English and film studies department, noted that the “degree of interruption was supposed to be minimal.” It wasn’t minimal.

In fact, many professors began their winter classes without access to their offices and the educational supplies within. In an email to The Gateway, Marcelle Kosman, an assistant lecturer in the English department, said even temporary office spaces weren’t ready by the time classes began. Professors helped each other in the meantime, but some were not given access to new spaces for a month. Clearly, this response to issues facing the College of Humanities and Social Sciences was dismal. In ignoring their needs, the U of A could not hide its disregard for these departments. All the university offered was a thanks for the faculty’s “patience and flexibility.” 

Now, the U of A has finally restored the HC for use. The effort and time spent to repair this building proves the necessity for a central arts space. After all, the university released plans to remove the HC back in 2022. It even reconfirmed its intentions to decant or repurpose the building in the 2024-27 Capital Plan. Clearly, the university is currently unprepared for the realities of these plans.

Yet, the same neglectful attitudes remain. The university has noted that some people will no longer have offices in the HC according to “space guidelines.” Inevitably, this decision means forcing staff in the arts and humanities to relocate once more, separating them from their colleagues. Arts students might also struggle to access the Arts Student Services in the HC and still attend office hours in another building.

This inability to interact with coworkers and students will then dramatically weaken department unity. Let’s not forget that a shared building allows professors, undergraduates, and graduates to more easily share educational opportunities and become confident in their fields. These students are entitled to the same network that their counterparts in the sciences have. But, the university seems to consider community unimportant to the humanities.

And if the U of A still plans to vacate the building in five to 10 years, then even staff with offices in HC will eventually have to leave. Where will they go? The university plans to shoehorn them into Athabasca Hall and the Education Complex, buildings already designated to the departments of computer science and education. In doing so, these departments become crowded and disjointed as well, undermining the sense of camaraderie. Not to mention, students won’t have convenient access to their professors which may limit the amount of help they receive. Consequently, both staff and students will be unable to do work or study as effectively as possible.

This choice also contradicts what James Allen, assistant vice-president (asset management and operations), said about restoring the building without “long-term plans to do anything else” back in January. Although he recently mentioned that it would take “five to ten years before anything definitive would happen,” there still seems to be a disinterest in retaining the HC. This conflicting information fails to provide the faculty of arts with a clear path forward. 

Ideally, the university would continue hosting a central arts space in the HC instead of casting the building aside. If maintenance is too expensive, the university should consider developing a new building in place of the HC. It would be a much-needed, long-term investment into the futures of arts students and faculty.

At the very least, faculty and staff deserve a reliable source of communication about the university’s decisions involving their space. How else will they advocate for themselves and ensure that their department is an influential place on campus?

All of this affects the faculty’s ability to create a welcoming and safe space for its students. How can students attend office hours if professors don’t know where their office is? How can professors connect with each other if the university scattered their colleagues across campus? The College of Humanities and Social Sciences cannot support their students and staff if the university doesn’t support them first.