The Carleton University Senate voted to allow undergraduate students to designate 0.5 credits as SAT/UNSAT for the winter semester at a virtual meeting on Nov. 26.
Course delivery for the next term, in-person convocation for students who graduated during the pandemic, a name change for Carleton’s institute for women’s and gender studies and Carleton’s new Centre for Community Engagement were also discussed at the meeting.
In his opening remarks, Carleton president and vice-chancellor Benoit-Antoine Bacon said he was pleased with the amount of courses Carleton was able to deliver in-person next semester.
Bacon added he estimated about half of courses are to be delivered with in-person components next semester as opposed to around 30 per cent during the fall semester.
Carleton vice-president (students and enrolment) Suzanne Blanchard said if a class was not specified to be flexible in the course description, exceptions to any in-person requirements would have to be made on a case-by-case basis by the course’s respective department.
The remarks come less than a week after Carleton students expressed frustration with the university’s announcement about winter course delivery methods.
After having to hold convocation virtually the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Senate voted to hold an in-person convocation for Carleton’s 2020 and 2021 graduates from June 13 to 18.
An in-person convocation for winter and spring 2022 graduates was scheduled from June 6 to 10. The senate voted to reschedule the event to take place from June 20 to 25.
Both series of convocation ceremonies are set to be held in the Fieldhouse pending COVID-19 restrictions.
Senate also approved vice provost Dwight Deugo’s proposal to change the name of the Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies to the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation. The WGST 1808 Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies course has also been renamed Introduction to Feminist Social Transformation and women’s and gender studies majors will have a new third-year core course Theory and Method in Feminist Social Transformation, according to the institute’s website. No reason was put forth for the name change.
Inaugural chair of Carleton’s Centre for Community Engagement and associate professor of industrial design Chantal Trudel introduced the centre to the Senate.
Trudel said the centre, which launched Oct. 27, is meant to support and administrate other working groups on campus such as the Centre for Indigenous Initiatives and Carleton’s Centre for Community Innovation.
The Senate is scheduled to reconvene Dec. 17.
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
