As thousands of University of Calgary students prepare for the April faculty amalgamation — the faculties of social sciences, humanities, fine arts and communication and culture will be combined into a 7,000-student super faculty — a group of students is making an effort to unite the four faculties.
The first meeting of the Faculty of the Arts Academic Club Council is Oct. 15. Humanities faculty representative Britney Luimes is excited about the new group.
“It’ll be a small student community before the big faculty starts up in April,” she said.
The new group is starting courtesy of the four faculty reps that will be combined.
“Last spring is when the whole idea of the FAACC came up,” says Luimes.
It’s not a new idea, Communication and Culture have had a clubs council for their faculty for some time now.
The whole premise of the FAACC is to bring together and assists all of the clubs that are going to be under the super faculty. Their target audience is representatives from the different faculty clubs and any other students who are going to be in this super faculty. It will be an open forum where any issues that clubs or students are having can be discussed and where club representatives can work together, explained Luimes.
It will be a place where students can ask questions and will provide them a direct link to their faculty representatives. Many students don’t know how to get in touch with the representatives who can answer any questions they have about their faculty, especially concerning the amalgamation.
“I think there is a lot of anxiety about the faculties amalgamating,” noted Luimes.
She is hoping the students that do come to the meeting will get their questions about the amalgamation answered and then pass the information along to others by word of mouth.
The first meeting will be quite informal.
“What we hope to accomplish at the first meeting is to let people know why they’re [making the change],” said Luimes.
Students will be able to get to know each other and then there will be an open forum type discussion about the objectives and goals the council has.
One of the goals Luimes said the FAACC is working toward is getting a permanent space on campus for the clubs under the super faculty.
She said that they were looking at trying to get a trailer, so the clubs have a space for an office. Not all of the faculty clubs have permanent offices or even offices at all, so this would be an improvement.
Another goal is making the communication flow between the faculties, clubs and representatives easier.
The first meeting is Oct. 15 in the MacEwan Student Centre Council Chambers from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. and is open to anyone interested.