I'd vote for either:
Faculty of Integrated Social Arts
or
Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies

I'd vote for either:
Faculty of Integrated Social Arts
or
Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies

I love this anonymous posting idea. I'm tempted to vote five times for my own previous proposal like the Integrated Social Arts proponent(s), but instead must mention the real "third option" everyone is ignoring but is so obviously the solution:

The Faculty of Social Sciences, Humanities, Fine Arts, and Communication and Culture

It's snappy, modern (none of this antiquated "Arts" nonsense), mentions the word science, produces an acronym you can't easily pronounce as a bad word, and will be a winner with the government and the public. And students will continue to be able to find their way easily to the program they want.

Everybody wins.

How could you not include "science" in a name that clearly includes scientific departments. Psychology is a science, psychology studies the brain. Where art plays in, I have no idea.

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is superior to all alternatives. Worries about the acronym are just silly.

Much of the teaching and research in fields such as Anthropology, Archaeology, Geography, and Psychology are not at all related to the arts disciplines. It could be detrimental or damaging if our faculty name characterized us otherwise; therefore, the name 'Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences' is the only viable option presented.

The granting agency for most of us is the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, which would lean in favor of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities but this would mention two of the four faculties and "absorb" the other two so I would leave it aside. The vast majority of degrees awarded will be Bachelor of Arts. Innovative options have a certain appeal but when high school students start comparing universities or when we talk to people off campus in various settings, it makes more sense to have a recognizable name. Let's settle on Faculty of Arts and move on to the more substantive issues.

The granting agency for most of us is the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, which would lean in favor of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities but this would mention two of the four faculties and "absorb" the other two so I would leave it aside. The vast majority of degrees awarded will be Bachelor of Arts. Innovative options have a certain appeal but when high school students start comparing universities or when we talk to people off campus in various settings, it makes more sense to have a recognizable name. Let's settle on Faculty of Arts and move on to the more substantive issues.

We definitely need mention of the Social Sciences in the title (whether it's before or after Arts I really don't care). I do not feel what I do is "artistic" but rather scientific and would prefer to see that captured by our faculty title.

For all those who think the students will call it the Faculty of ASS...then call it:
Faculty of Social Sciences and Arts!!
What is wrong with Faculty of SSA??

Take a look at this from the website and then say why Social Sciences shouldn't be in the name??
The Faculty of Social Sciences is the largest and most diverse faculty at the University of Calgary, with over 23,000 course enrollees and more than 4000 undergraduate and graduate students supported by approximately 250 faculty and staff.

Please consider the acronym when naming the faculty. We want to be taken seriously and the options provided well..... :(

Something to ponder: with the offerings of many cross-section courses, "Interdisciplinary Studies" has a better ringtone.

Faculty of Arts I can live with.

I'd agree with several of the previous replies that the name of the faculty has only minor significance in the big picture, even of the faculty members from the various current faculties most seem to identify with their home department, even more closely then the students do, rather then with the faculty they are in.

I could live with Faculty of Arts and Social Science -- a number of other institutions use this name and call it FASS to get around the acronym. But I have a problem with any one of the founding faculties being singled out in the name, and after a number of years of working for Communication and Culture, I lean toward a name that is short, fits on a business card easily, and doesn't have an "and" to suggest any divisions. Shortly after we went from General Studies to Communication and Culture, we evolved two formal divisions called -- guess what -- Communication Division and Culture Division. We have not been as unified since.

"Faculty of Integrated Social Arts" is not a bad runner-up and I could certainly live with the smaller type on my business card.

I have a problem with anything that includes the word "science," simply because all of Fine Arts, almost all of Humanities, and some of Communication and Culture does not consider that it is doing any form of science, even if social. I realize that some programs, including Psychology, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society award a BSc as well as a BA, but these four faculties have come together (or been slammed together, depending on your take) because their common denominator is that they are not doing science as defined by the Faculty of Science.

Since -- as an earlier comment pointed out -- students identify with their department or program far more than their faculty, let's just keep it simple.

Doug Brent

Suggestion: Faculty of Arts and Society

Given the short notice that students received (5 days), I'm skeptical that whatever we bring up here re: naming the new faculty would be seriously considered, since the deadline for naming is "Fall 2009".

That being said, I am going to state my piece anyway.

1. Naming is not something to be taken lightly. In the corporate sector, institutional naming can often make or break a brand. While we aren't renaming the university, I think it's important to recognize the naming (and branding) opportunity that we have here will impinge on the university's brand and reputation; as such, we have to accord the process the due respect (and time) that it deserves.

2. I can see the logistical and economic sense in merging these faculties, even though I am concerned about job losses and layoffs. However, to re-state the obvious, I think that all 4 areas -- communication & culture, humanities, fine arts and social sciences are distinct and feature disparate fields of study. As such, finding an all-encompassing name (on such short notice) that fairly reflects the diversity and accrued brand equity each faculty brings will be challenging (but not impossible).

3. Re: the proposed names. I think both names are options borne out of convenience, although option 1 is the poorer choice. Many would argue that the social sciences cannot be grouped together with the "Arts" at all and I would tend to agree with them. The main objective here is to find an umbrella name (or brand) elastic enough to house all these faculties. In this regard, "Arts & Social Sciences" comes closer, although perhaps "Humanities & Social Sciences" is another possibility. Semantically (bereft of academic connotation), I personally think "Humanities" is more encompassing than "Arts".

4. The opportunity. A possibility exists here to discard the above names and consider the use of a more encompassing name. Obviously this task requires more research, but I am suggesting the use of a name that reflects the truly multi-disciplinary nature of all the fields of study that will be housed here. E.g. "The Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies" or something to that effect. By using this approach, all the equity that the 4 former faculties bring would not be marginalized in any way. In addition, we can also leverage on the equity created by using a liberal arts nomenclature.

In closing, I'd just like to reiterate that effective naming is not something that can be done quickly or through 5 days of online solicitation. However, if this process is properly implemented, not only can we maintain the foundation of the university's brand, but we will strengthen it at a time when it is most needed.

good luck.

george heng

This has been a great, and at times even witty, discussion to follow. It appears that the "votes" in favour of Arts are winning out over Arts and Social Sciences, due to: 1) the history associated with the use of the Faculty of Arts in Canadian universities,2) the economy of prose, 3) the lack of apparent division between the Arts and Social Science departments in a Faculty named with a single word, and 4) the potentially unfortunate acronym associated with the alternative (let alone choosing a logo!).

I would add my vote for the Faculty of Arts, for the above reasons. But in some respects I suggest that this discussion is moot. We already have heard from Deans that most students identify themselves with their Major, which is either a departmental or programmatic entity, rather than with the Faculty. As such, the Faculty name is in some respects irrelevant. What will be critical, however, is that the diversity of the departments and programs in the new Faculty are recognized and promoted.

So my opinion is that we should have a minimalist and inclusive term for the Faculty, and get on to the discussion of how the Faculty will operate day to day, and how the various the Departments and programs will be promoted within the larger Faculty.

Keith Dobson, Psychology

Titles should have a clear meaning both to academics and the public. What meaning is conveyed by "Arts"? Arts has no clear meaning in academia as this debate has shown. What meaning it does have is resisted by many of us who do not view our work as "arts". But above all, it is unclear to students and even more unclear to the general public.

To choose a name just because UBC or U of A chose that name years ago should not be acceptable to a forwarding-looking institution.

So I am ABA (Anything But Arts) because its meaning is unclear and oldfashioned.

I do like the term "Human Sciences" and if that could be incorporated into the name somehow, that could fit a broad range of departments.

I think that the new faculty should be named the Faculty of Creative Engineering. This is a great choice for several reasons. It fits in well with the science and engineering theme the university and Alberta seems to enjoy. Also, perhaps we will get more funding since people tend to enjoy throwing money at things with the word 'engineer' in them. And it encompasses everything that will be going into this faculty. creative engineering can describe comm and culture, humanities, fine arts and social sciences. And there are no bad acronyms one can associate with this. Its obviously the choice to make.

You might complain about how the name Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences may end up as (F)ASS but have you actually thought about how the reduction of Faculty of Arts to FA would be interpreted?

Suggestions:

Faculty of Communications Media and Social Sciences (FCMSS)

Faculty of Arts, Communication and Social Sciences (FACSS)

Faculty of Media Arts and Social Sciences (FMASS)

Faculty of Human Interests and Activites (FHIA)

Faculty of Human Science and Communication (FHSC)

& Definitely, either the Faculty of Arts & Social Science

or

Faculty Liberal Arts & Science

I would have to agree with some of the other comments on the name Faculty of Arts. Naming the new faculty this might confuse students as to what type of courses are offered by this faculty. That is why my vote is for The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences since there is nothing else to choose from. Would it be possible to get a third or even a fourth option to choose from?

It encompasses everything in one nice word.
With no horrendous acronym.

i vote for : The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

I would vote for faculty of art and social sciences but to be taken seriously would be nice so it's a no on that. but I don't want to support just arts either, it not inclusive and its boring, come on! we're creative people we can come up with a better name than this. My vote goes to the "Integrated Social Arts" I think it's better than both of the predesignated names offered here

What's in a name, you might ask? A nose by any other name could still smell feet. However, students being as lively as they are will doubtless play fast and loose with: What faculty are you in? Arts and Social Sciences, I don't think so! Try ASS. The hallowed parchment reduced to a piece of Arts and Social Sciences. Come now, gentle folk, Arts has an excellent pedigree, and, perhaps, if the good people in Social Science can convince anyone that they are effectively conducting science, then they can join the Faculty of Science. In the meantime, let us choose the name, short and sweet, that educated people the world over recognize as the home of all the disciplines you are bringing together again. I vote for Faculty of Arts.

Arts is not all inclusive, but the A.S.S. faculty would be an ongoing problem. Human Sciences has considerable appeal as well. Surely incoming students who can work out where Geography and Psychology are located at UBC and U of A will also be able to do enough research to locate it at U of C.

Lyndsay Campbell, Ph.D.
Communication & Culture

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

This is both descriptive and inclusive.

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

This is both descriptive and inclusive.

There seems to be great debate about a suitable name. Both of the two names that were suggested to us seem to have significant detractors. Perhaps this might be because our programs do not completely fit together — thus, no name is truly suitable or encompassing.

All of the names suggested below this (the posts appear in reverse chronological order) have some sort of bias against one of the soon-to-be-former faculties, so I do not support any of them. Something like the Faculty of Arts and Humanities would be the closest, but it is arguably flawed in the same manner.

I guess what I'm saying is there is no perfect name, and any name we choose — even the Faculty of Arts — will marginalize some. So let's just pick something mediocre that does not bring attention to itself and try to sell the programs within the Faculty to prospective students. "The Faculty of General Studies" is available. ;-) ;-)

What's more concerning is that we are being consulted on the name of the new Faculty but not on who is going to be the Dean. Which is more important?

Concise. G13-compatible. Brief.

Geoffrey Simmins
Faculty of Fine Arts

Definitely Faculty of Arts. If for no other reason than the fact that students won't call us the Faculty of A**. It may seem like a small thing, but it's a huge thing to consider.

I like it!

I favour "Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences" on the grounds that it is the most clearly descriptive and inclusive name.

The name Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, though modelled by four Canadian mid-tier institutions we would not want to emulate, many Anzac universities we might (Waikato, ANU), and two or three British ones, alongside a few third-world universities, seems inadvisable to me because it already forecasts division in the resulting unit and potential future rupture.

As a humanist with wide-ranging interdisciplinary interests, I do not see the stark divide between arts disciplines projected by the longer name as a reality in research life, and it clearly seems arrayed against those goals of the merger having to do with interdisciplinarity since it would seem to foster enclaves or pockets of non-communication.

My preference goes for Faculty of Arts because of its inclusivity. The other option, FASS (beside the issue of the acronym) would establish a distinction between two components, one seemingly more defined, the other more vague that would in the eyes of most encompass the three existing Faculties of Communication and Culture, Fine Arts and Humanities and would somehow send the message that these three Faculties are added to Social Sciences. Not in my view a good way to start.

There has been postings asking whhether there would be a third option possible. One may look at the designation of the granting council which funds most of our research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and go for a Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (in whatever order one may wish). But that of course would leave Fine Arts and Communication and Culture seemingly in the dust. So the other option (but I am French, so what do I know?) would be to adopt the French designation, le Conseil de recherche en sciences humaines, and call the new Faculty the "Faculty of Human Sciences." This would avoid what many seem to feel is the fuzziness of "Arts", keep the word "Sciences" in the title, use the word "human" which refers to all human activities including cultural, artistic and social ones, avoid using an "old" designation such as Arts, and avoid a designation (FASS) that makes it look like three existing Faculties are merely joining a fourth one.

Delighted to have been the source of joy in the present state of affairs. You can stop laughing or shaking your heads now!

Pierre-Yves Mocquais
French, Italian and Spanish

Or something on the lines of Human Sciences.

I vote for 'Faculty of Arts'. The second name sounds like 'a bowl of fruit and oranges' to me.

I vote for the traditional, concise "Faculty of Arts"

Mark Migotti

Philosophy