By Vanessa Broadbent (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: January 14, 2015
After internal approval for a major and minor last year, UFV has begun adding peace and conflict studies (PACS) courses to the timetable.
Steven Schroeder, who is also coordinator of Mennonite studies at UFV and a history faculty member, explains the courses will focus on conflict in the Fraser Valley as well as abroad. “In addition to analyzing conflict and peace strategies in the classroom, students will acquire practical skills and hands-on experience,” he says in an email.
Sylvie Murray, UFV’s program development coordinator, says even though the university isn’t receiving additional funding from the government, this particular addition will not add strain to other programs.
However, she did note that “the new programs that we’re creating are funded out of existing funds.”
Developing new programs requires hiring faculty members as well as developing new courses. To create new programs, universities may scale back or reallocate funding for current programs.
Schroeder writes that in addition to internal funding, the program is being funded by “donations that support start-up and supplementary activities.” And last November the university hosted a dinner event to honour “substantial” donors, where additional funding was sought.
“We are seeking external funding for an instructor to teach core PACS courses and administer the program,” the invitation reads, before listing that $100,000/year would pay for a teaching chair, $50,000/year “to deliver core PACS courses.”
Schroeder explains the funding received so far comes from “a range of organizations and individuals with an emphasis on multi-cultural representation.”
However, it is unclear which organizations are donating, how much, and if the sources for donation are sustainable.
Schroeder explains that some of the PACS courses are already offered at UFV, as well as the professors that will be teaching them. “The peace and conflict studies program draws on existing resources, faculty expertise, and courses, to deliver a broad-based program that reflects the multiculturalism of the Fraser Valley, and the UFV community,” he says.
Murray envisions other disciplines benefitting from the new program.
“The peace studies major and minor [are] interdisciplinary — it would be a great compliment to a major in political science [to have] a peace and conflict studies minor,” she says.
“The program mix is a very dynamic thing, and in order to stay relevant it’s nice to offer programs that address the issues that our students are concerned about,” she adds.
While other universities offer variations on peace and conflict studies, UFV’s has a few distinctions. SFU’s “International studies” degree options are mainly grouped under an IS course listing, like UFV’s PACS, but UBC’s “International Relations” program is made up of a variety of components, some of which are shared at UFV, like political science and geography, and some which are not, like food and resource courses and a heavier emphasis on economics for degree requirements.
UFV’s degree, as one that focuses on the Fraser Valley, will also offer Mennonite studies and Indo-Canadian studies courses within the program.
Schroeder says this kind of addition was a natural step. “There is increasing demand for multi-disciplinary programs that fall outside of the traditional parameters of existing disciplines,” he writes. “UFV cannot afford to not develop new programs.”
The program has been approved by UFV and its senate, and is currently waiting on approval from the Ministry of Advanced Education. Should it be approved, the major and minor will be implemented in September 2015.
