A new Liberal Arts program,  approved by the McGill Senate last May, could be offered by McGill in the near future.

According to Associate Dean of Arts (Student Affairs) André Costopoulos, the new bachelor’s degree was created in response to the discontinuation of the Humanistic Studies program in 2009 and the Arts Legacy program in 2011.

“Both programs had real strengths, but also problems,” Costopoulos said. “The Humanistic program gave students very broad training, but didn’t have a depth requirement. The Arts Legacy program gave [first year] students real grounding in the humanities discipline, but the numbers we could accommodate were very small […] because it was an expensive program to run.”

Costopoulos said that the discussion to create a humanities program that emphasized the strengths of both the Humanistic Studies and Arts Legacy programs—while also addressing their drawbacks—started almost three years ago.

An Academic Policy Committee report to the Senate advised that the new program be suited to the needs of a research-intensive university. Prospective students will study a large assortment of cultural texts, learn a new language (English excluded), and take a variety of history, literature, art, ethics, and philosophy courses covering a wide range of historical eras.

Students are also required to take 15 credits of complementary courses in one of four specialized streams: languages and literature; fine arts and histories; ethics and social thought; or history and liberal arts. The program also places high importance on preparation for creative leadership and for public service.

The difficulty of establishing a new program—especially an interdisciplinary one—lies in the matter of commitment and resource sharing.

“Interdisciplinary programs don’t have their own faculty and teaching resources,” Costopoulos explained. “Departments decide how to allocate teaching resources. This means people have to be committed and make the case that this is a worthy investment.”

According to Costopoulos, the program will only be offered once several faculties or departments step forward and offer to teach the interdisciplinary program.

“In some programs, like International Development Studies, departments share the load,” Costopoulos said. “That kind of arrangement hasn’t emerged yet for the Liberal Arts. But I don’t think it should be a hard sell. It went through all the multiple levels of approval, and the staff is happy with it. I think it’s a strong [and] good program.”

Based on preliminary evaluation, Costopoulos said he expects up to 300 students to enroll in the program.

Haley Dinel, Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President University Affairs, said that SSMU would be more than willing to listen to student feedback about the program.

“It’s frankly out of our hands,” Dinel said. “It’s been through Senate and gotten the check marks. That being said, when the program starts, and [if] there are lots of issues and students want to talk to us, we will absolutely do something about it.”

Dinel placed emphasis on the importance of student-university communication and student advocates for the program.

“What’s great with having a new program is that it’s so nascent and new,” Dinel said. “If [the university] wanted to identify any problems quickly, all it would take is 40 or 60 [student voices].”

Costopoulos agreed that student support is important for the implementation and development of the Liberal Arts program.

“Students need to go to their departments and say ‘I think this should be one of your priorities’,” he said. “If there are faculty members to form a committee, find the resources, and administer and teach the program, it will happen.”

Chloe Sauder, U2 English literature and previous Arts Legacy student, said the increased capacity of the new Liberal Arts program will benefit students as long as professors and TAs are still able to give them individual attention.

“An interdisciplinary program can enable one to see from a new perspective how his or her discipline is linked to other departments within the faculty,” she said. “The more students who are able to participate in the new program, the better.”