New School of Politics and Democracy sparks concerns from faculty

The University of Alberta and the Banff Centre have been the home of the Peter Lougheed School of Leadership since 2014. Now, the school has a sibling — the Peter Lougheed School of Politics and Democracy (PLSPD). 

The U of A officially launched the PLSPD in October 2025. Its first undergraduate course is available in the current winter semester.

The new school aims to educate and empower students to foster democratic resilience. But some — especially in the department of political science — have some concerns about the PLSPD.

Faculty first publicly raised these concerns at the September 22, 2025 General Faculties Council (GFC) meeting. A discussion item regarding the renaming of the two Peter Lougheed Colleges to schools was presented. 

Lise Gotell, a staff representative for the faculty of arts, raised concerns about whether the renaming and establishment of the PLSPD followed the proper governance process. She noted that the Post-Secondary Learning Act (PSLA) gives GFC the authority to recommend the establishment of schools.

As the item on the Lougheed Schools was only a discussion item, GFC did not hold a vote on the renaming or establishment of the second school. 

Verna Yiu, provost and vice-president (academic), said at the meeting that the school is an administrative unit, not an academic one.

The General Faculties Council Programs Committee approved the certificate program developed through the PLSPD in December. 

Concerns over the powers of GFC being eroded

Gotell explained that she initially objected because she believed the creation of the school should have been a decision item. 

“I have a general concern, as someone who’s been pretty deeply involved in governance, that the powers of the [GFC] are being eroded,” Gotell said. 

She explained that this matters because the Board of Governors (BoG) is largely made up of members of the public who are mostly business people. As such, few have academic expertise. This is why a university has a senior academic governance body to make decisions about academic programming, Gotell said.

Gotell is also concerned about government interference in academic affairs. The government appoints members of the public to BoG.

“That provides a way for the government to intervene in academic programming, which I’m quite concerned about,” Gotell said. “Universities have existed for hundreds of years because academics control academic programming and because academics have academic freedom.”

“If we have governments reaching into the delivery of academic programs, we have a problem and we have a situation in which universities can no longer claim to be free from political influence.”

Gotell hasn’t been satisfied with the university’s answers when she has raised these concerns. Others in the faculty of arts have been critical of both the governance path and the displacement of the political science department from the initial development of the school, according to Gotell.

President Bill Flanagan spearheaded the creation of the school

In October, Bill Flanagan, president and vice-chancellor of the U of A, hosted an event that coincided with the official launch of the PLSPD. As part of his President’s Speakers Series, the two academic directors of the PLSPD, Moin Yahya and Jared Wesley, joined him for a public lecture.

Wesley is a political science professor, while Yahya teaches in the faculty of law.

Flanagan recounted how the school came about at the lecture.

“I posed to them the question, what do we owe democracy as a university? What can we do as a university? In particular, what can we do to foster understanding and a respect and commitment to democracy among our students?” Flanagan asked.

A book called What Universities Owe Democracy? by Ronald J. Daniels inspired the school, Flanagan said at the event. So he took Wesley and Yahya out for dinner to discuss starting this school.

“I said to them, [Yahya] and [Wesley], why don’t we develop a program for our students that is intended to, in part, be our response as the university, to what universities owe democracy? And this gave rise to the [PLSPD].” 

Flanagan declined to provide comment to The Gateway regarding his involvement in the establishment of the school. 

Political science faculty express concerns around the governance process

The Gateway spoke to multiple faculty from the department of political science about the school. The Gateway is not naming the individuals, but they shared concerns about the academic rigor of the school.

Laurie Adkin, a professor emerita of political science, also expressed concern with the school. Part of her concern is the lack of involvement of GFC in establishing the school. 

“My concerns are around the process by which [the school] was created, which on the face of it has done a run around of the existing academic units in the university that have for a long time already been engaged in teaching citizenship and democracy,” Adkin explained.

Adkin said that the current Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH), Chris Andersen told her that the school did not follow the traditional route of a departmental initiative. 

She added that the rationale for why the new school is necessary hasn’t been convincing.

Adkin has asked about the process the creation of the school went through. She said that university administration has vaguely told her that senior leadership made the decision to bypass GFC.

The “runaround” of GFC is a pattern Adkin has seen before. Adkin feels labelling the PLSPD as an administrative unit is a way to justify, retroactively, keeping GFC out of the decision making. 

“The certificate program that will be offered under the umbrella of the school [has been] approved by a committee of GFC. But that still doesn’t solve the original problem of the school not having been proposed by an academic unit that backed it and supported it.”

School aims to bring together units across disciplines

Wesley explained in an interview with The Gateway that this means that the school doesn’t run academic programs. Rather it supports units that do want to run programs that serve its mission. 

Wesley said an interdisciplinary approach drove the need for the PLSPD outside of the existing political science department. 

“The department of political science is well positioned to be a leader in this area — the discussion of democracy at the macro level, as well as at the micro level,” he said.

But they wanted to take an interdisciplinary approach with the school to bring in people beyond just political scientists. As political polarization rises, Wesley wanted to equip students with the tools to express their beliefs.

For Wesley, the importance of the school lies in fostering an environment where “students feel like they are more confident and comfortable in having conversations that right now surveys tell us they’re not willing to have.”

In 2025, the Student Experience Action Plan (SEAP) survey found that 67 per cent of students feel safe expressing their political beliefs. Why the other 33 per cent don’t feel safe expressing their political beliefs on campus interested Wesley.

“Some folks interpret it as those people feel marginalized, that their viewpoints are not respected or welcomed on campus,” he said. “I’m more persuaded by the interpretation that students just don’t feel like they have the tools to meaningfully engage in those conversations.”

Program delivery for certificate of politics and democracy

Wesley said that initially the faculty of law and arts were the foundational faculties of the school. But they found that the faculty of Native studies could contribute to this as well.

A committee in the CSSH, where the school is based out of, oversees the certificate. That committee will be in charge of finding and approving courses for the program.

The initial courses for the certificate are deliberately delivered through online courses. Wesley said this is because a lot of political engagement happens online. It is also meant to reduce barriers students may face because of distance and the size of campus.

The Peter Lougheed School was a better fit to develop the certificate because “the university has made a lot of changes to the certificate framework that have resulted in departments, not just the political science department, but others winding down their certificate programs because they have new requirements to meet,” Wesley said.

Chris Andersen, the dean of the CSSH agreed that sometimes departments aren’t well suited to develop and house certificate programs. The school of politics and democracy helps to support units that want to develop some of these courses.

Aside from the certificate program, the school will also facilitate workshops, public events, symposiums, and seminars.

Concerns over possible political motivations

Then Gotell read an article in The Hub regarding the need for schools of civics in Alberta to counter perceived ideological bias in universities. The article called for universities to reform and repurpose sections of the universities to “fulfill their original purpose.”

The article noted that public confidence in universities has declined. Academic inquiry has become destructive or critical instead of constructive, according to the author.

The solution suggested is to create schools of civics in the U of A and University of Calgary to “address the crisis of civic literacy and civic virtue, and the imbalance of perspectives in universities.” It also emphasized the need for the “right kind” of professors to lead these efforts.

The article specifically mentioned the Peter Lougheed School of Leadership as a close example.

This sparked a secondary concern of academic programming decisions being made for political reasons.

“That’s something I very much object to. I don’t think there is any kind of a left-leaning bias at the [U of A],” she explained. “It was especially concerning because I am a political scientist and [the article] seemed to be suggesting that the political science department only delivered its courses from a position of left-wing bias.”

Adkin, and others in the department, saw similarities between the PLSPD and what the article in The Hub suggested.

Wesley said that pandering to a particular political party or group never came up in the conversations when building the school. The school is focused on pluralism, rather than any one particular view.

He also said it’s different from the civics schools seen in the United States. Many of those civic schools are based on neutrality, whereas the school of politics and democracy is based on pluralism.

Provincial government funding school

The Ministry of Advanced Education has provided funding to the school, according to Andersen. 

The Minister of Advanced Education, Myles McDougall, provided a statement to The Gateway. He said that to date the ministry has provided $36.5 million to the Peter Lougheed Schools. He did not specify what amount has gone to the school of politics and democracy.

“Through Advanced Education, the Peter Lougheed School of Politics and Democracy will provide students with invaluable opportunities to engage thoughtfully with diverse perspectives, participate constructively in public life, and strengthen democratic culture,” McDougall stated.

From Adkin’s viewpoint, the motives for creating the school seem to be financial. 

“It looks like this is a school intended to attract external funding in a way that the administration believes was not going to flow into existing academic units.”

She also questioned why the funding for the school is not given to existing academic units if its role is to support those units in delivering interdisciplinary programming.

U of A media relations did not respond to further questions about the approval process for the school.