New name for Memorial University's Faculty of Arts

There's no longer a Faculty of Arts at Memorial University: it's officially been renamed the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

MUN's Board of Regents approved the decision at a meeting last week, after the arts faculty voted 43-12 in January for the new name.

Dean of Arts Lynn Phillips said the name change will alleviate confusion among prospective students who might be confused about what "arts" actually means.

"There's been some confusion of the Faculty of Arts with performing arts work, fine arts and visual arts, so that is one of the issues we're trying to address," Phillips said.

"Part of the issue is high school students think, 'Arts is not really what I want to do,' without really understanding what could be involved with that."

The Faculty of Arts has experienced declining enrolment over the past several years.

Phillips said changing the name is part of a renewal plan to encourage more interest.

"There might be a nostalgia for the term, and there's a beauty to the term arts, because I think it's been around right from the very beginning when the university became a university," she said.

"But times change and I think it's a really good time for us to be thinking of new ways of representing ourselves and clarifying how we have changed."

BA, MA programs not changing

Phillips said "humanities and social sciences" also better represents how faculty members think about their work and research.

The names of degree programs will not change, however. Students in the faculty will still obtain a bachelor of arts or a master of arts. The name of the Arts and Administration Building will also stay the same.

The name change does mean updating dozens of marketing and operational materials to include humanities and social sciences, including signs, brochures, ads, posters and merchandise.

Phillips says she doesn't expect to have any costs associated with the changes, just extra time for communications and information technology employees.

The changes will happen slowly, she said, but the faculty should be fully rebranded by September.

However, Phillips acknowledged that saying her own new title, dean of humanities and social sciences, is a bit of a mouthful.

"At some point, we'll probably start talking about ourself as HSS, just to make life easier."