Montréal, Québec
August 3, 2021

ATTN: Faculty of Fine Arts, D/CART Department, Concordia University

Student concerns regarding the delivery of course content in Fall 2021

To the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, and the Department Chair of the D/CART Program,

As we move closer to the Fall 2021 semester at Concordia University, it has become clear that the D/CART Department is opting for an 80% online/20% in-person content delivery format, with both asynchronous/synchronous learning. As the students and clients directly impacted by this situation, we find the lack of dialogue exploring alternative methods of course delivery unacceptable.

The purpose of this petition is to communicate through a show of solidarity that we do not believe the quality of an online education to be comparable to that of an in-person environment. Invaluable connection and networking between students, professors and non-academic staff alike are gone. As workload and class length increase to offset the clear limitations of online learning, it is clear to us that our positive mental health has been compromised: isolation, disconnection, depression and anxiety have amplified across the students considerably. At a time when the global community is experiencing untold traumas, it is more important than ever that  Concordia University be an institution that strives to nurture personal interconnections and collective empowerment. 

While this has undoubtedly been an extremely difficult time for the teaching and non-academic staff in our department, we demand that alternative avenues for course delivery be explored with transparency and openness. Given our extremely small class size, our department should be the most well-equipped to pivot, and explore said alternatives. 

The return to in-person course delivery should be a matter of choice and personal liability, along with our willingness to implement best practices to achieve positive outcomes. We do also understand that, because some students may not yet feel safe in in-person settings, it is important to take this into consideration.

If the tenets of the D/CART program are indeed to “...approach design and computation arts in diverse, experimental, and collaborative ways”, then let us experiment and collaborate together to achieve this.

With thanks,

The students of the D/CART program