It’s been 40 years since Ryerson created a new faculty. But this summer it was announced that in the fall of 2012, the Faculty of Science will break out on its own, vying for space on campus.
Currently, students studying biology, chemistry, computer science, physics and mathematics are contained within the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Science (FEAS).
“It’s not a divorce, just a big faculty giving birth to a smaller one,” said the dean of FEAS, Mohamed Lachemi. “It’s about time Ryerson had its own faculty of science. It will give these programs the chance to flourish even more.”
The provost’s committee has written a report assessing the feasibility of Ryerson having a faculty of science. It was found that of the 25 largest universities in Canada, only four combined the departments of science and engineering together.
The report also suggested that under the new faculty, three offices should be formed, requiring at least nine new administrative positions to be filled.
But how will these changes benefit students and what will it cost?
Those details aren’t yet entirely clear. When asked if class sizes would be smaller, the dean said that programs will remain exactly the same, but it will allow “a stronger focus to be put on science.”
“There aren’t enough lockers so we have to share and we (science students) don’t have our own student space. I hope that the new faculty will make things better and more organized,” said Andrew Ruckstuhl, a fourth-year biology student.
The engineering and architectural science students will remain grouped as one faculty. The preliminary report showed that the department of architectural science would like to become its own faculty, possibly in partnership with urban planning and interior design. While the university supports the idea, it stated that it’s not a priority at this time.
If architecture were to become its own faculty in the future, “it does offer us autonomy within cultural issues,” said Colin Ripley, the architectural science graduate program director. “Architecture as a design discipline is a different culture than the engineering discipline. We do different work, research and disseminate in different ways. Engineers don’t understand our culture and there’s no reason they should, but it does mean that things aren’t as easy to do as they might be,” he said.
