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World-Class Education?

Arts & Science in an intellectual bubble


At the University of Toronto students expect a world class education, an education that will prepare students to be world class citizens with critical minds. But there are deep, traditional ideas about what is considered important to learn, that haven't changed substantially enough in a few decades. Areas of study such as African Studies, South Asian Studies, and Caribbean Studies are under-funded, generally ignored, and given little importance within U of T. For example, the Tamil Students' Association (TSA) had to go to the Tamil community in the GTA to find funding for a Tamil language course at U of T.

"For us, finding community funding went well", says Ashwin Balamohan, the VP University for the University of Toronto Student's Union and a former TSA executive, "but it shouldn't have happened, it shouldn't be necessary. The problem is how the system is set up; everyone passes the buck on to someone else. South Asian Studies say New College doesn't give them enough money, New College says Arts & Science doesn't give them enough money, Arts & Science blames the Provost, who blames the Ontario government, which blames the Federal government. But the problem is that it's been no one's priority to promote diversity in critical perspectives, including area studies, at the post secondary level. I would like to see it stop being neglected". The reasons for this under-funding and uneven development are not benign.

"The most striking thing is that area studies are characterized by 'uneven development'", which is to say that some studies have much better developed and funded programs than others", says South Asian Studies head Professor Kanishka Goonewardena. "For example the Centre for the Study of the United States (CSUS) has a budget that is several times more than the combined budget of African, South Asian, and Caribbean studies. So in the priorities of funding some area studies do not figure as prominently as some others do". Thus, students who want more courses are often directed to acquire community funding.
"It's appalling that students who already pay tuition", says African Studies Initiative (ASI) member Natacha Nsabimana, "are expected to go to their community to ask for funding if they want more courses - it's ridiculous! I wonder if they would do the same if German students wanted to expand their program. Would they dare ask them to go find funding in the German community?"

"I would characterize it—this kind of 'communalism', if you will—as a certain kind of Eurocentrism at an administrative level as well as a pedagogical level". Says Goonewardena, "The traditional academic disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences, all of which have very Eurocentric roots, are much better funded, the reasons for such "uneven development" are ultimately and immediately very political".

Ultimately the division of African Studies is an entire continent grouped into two or three courses. The program has two core faculty members, and no independent resources or hiring capabilities. Therefore, students in programs like African Studies face barren curricula with few options and little critical engagement.

"The students who take education seriously are frustrated", says Corey McPherson, ASI member. "When it comes to graduate school we can't compete with students graduating from other universities because we are not at the same level". Several students share this worry, because of the lack of core courses and program expansion, and especially because they mostly learn from sessional instructors rather than professors who are hired under more rigorous circumstances to ensure their superior qualification.

"You talk to someone who studied Africa at another university", says Siham Rayale, VP for the Association of Political Science Students, "and you begin to feel very inadequate as you say to yourself, 'wow, I can't even have a conversation with you let alone a debate, because I haven't read what you've read and I don't know what you know because I haven't studied these perspectives or these ideas".

Students remain insecure about their future in a world that they feel they know little about, and worry that they are not adequately qualified for post-graduate education or the job-market, where flexible and critical minds are required. That we have to study these places from a Eurocentric perspective places us in an intellectual bubble and hinders creative synthesis.

"I think part of the problem is that there are certain kinds of assumptions in place about where the centres of knowledge are", says Naisargi Dave, Professor of Anthropology at U of T, "and no matter how much a university believes in principles of diversity and education, there are certain assumptions that happen to prevail. And until there are the kinds of student movement and momentum we are seeing right now, a lot of these things just really don't change". This limits a student's education because the world has changed and is continually changing.

"[Students think:] let's all take African studies, Africa is cool, I want to learn how to speak like an African", says McPherson, "[but] then I don't know who speaks it or where they come from. I don't know the people or the politics but I can say 'How are you?' and 'Where is the washroom?'" Students like McPherson feel a sense of despair. "It just seems that we are pushing against so much resistance to change, we are not asking the university to do anything crazy, or radical, all we are asking is to update the program".
"We are a part of this, we are students". says McPherson. "We pay money to come to this institution we want to be felt as though we are taught something and that we are taken seriously".

Hope is not all lost. There are faculty and student initiatives working to change the system. Student activists from the Arts and Science Students Union (ASSU), the South Asian Studies Students Association (SASSA), the African Studies Initiative (ASI), Association of Political Science Students (APSS), and Women and Gender Studies Students' Union (WGSSU), have come together to create the Critical Area Studies Collective (CASC), and are working toward increased intellectual rigour in Arts & Science. To promote awareness amongst students and administration, they are currently planning an academic event in March that demonstrates the need and importance of critical area studies for all students in Arts & Science.

"This not a question of skin colour or identity, its not because I'm South Asian, South Asian Studies is going to be important to me", says ASSU President Noaman Ali. "South Asian Studies is important because it's part of this world, and whether you are black, white, yellow or purple, you should know it if you want to know the world. You want to study something for the sake of knowledge, for the sake of intellectual rigour".

"I think what is needed", says New College President Rick Halpern, "is persuasion and academic justification. And given President Naylor's emphasis on the student experience, if we have students speaking articulately, loudly and consistently, we'll get there sooner rather than later". Now seems to be the ideal moment for change, as students from various corners of Arts & Science are joining hands in the CASC to take action.

"I think that this is the best time for it", says SASSA President Preethy Sivakumar, "because Arts and Science has taken some steps towards it, with the establishment of the Curriculum Review and Renewal Committee. I think that indicated that the Dean of Arts & Science wants to take a look at these things, so if the administration is serious, they cannot ignore our efforts. And we're not suggesting an uncomplicated kind of area studies, where we just randomly increase the number of courses on Africa or the Caribbean, but we want an improved intellectual quality. I see a few courses in Political Science, for example, engaging colonialism or the Third World, but it's just not intellectually rigorous enough. For example, colonialism is portrayed as a 'thing of the past', and the Third World is engaged using predominantly European 'development' models". But it's certainly not just student activists who are worried about expansion of these programs and critical perspectives.

"I have no interest in running something small", states Caribbean Studies director Alissa Trotz, "I have an interest in growing this program and making it something that really contributes not just to the students in the program but to the intellectual life of the university as a whole. There's no way I would have taken this on, with a young family to look after, if I thought I would be stuck in a rut or ghettoised in some small area studies program or if I thought there was no opportunity".

"We would like the university to listen to what we have to say, and look at student interests, and the interests of education, and take solid action". Say McPherson and Nsabimana, "We want to see change happen, and participate in change, we want to feel as though we are not doing this in vain and this is not falling upon deaf ears; our voices need to be taken seriously". At the CASC meeting, the general worry amongst student representatives was that students have become too disconnected from their education.

"I would really like it if students felt like they had a stake in this university", says Ali, "and that education is not something you receive but that education is something you participate in. Education is never a one way street".

Posted by: Sarah S.

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