Launch of the St. Thomas University Major in Criminology and Social Justice

Dr. Roger Barnsley
Vice-President (Academic), St. Thomas University

Good Morning. I am here as a stand in for Dr. O'Brien who sends his regrets that he is not able to be with you this morning. He has asked me to stand in both to make an announcement, but also to take the more pleasant duty of welcoming you to St. Thomas. We have taken the position that when we have an opportunity to welcome people to our campus, we do like to take a little time to tell you a little bit about ourselves, if you don't mind. We believe that it is particularly important because there are representatives from all over the Province and we like to get the word out about what is happening here at St. Thomas, because we are quite excited about the many new developments that are taking place on this campus.

First of all, as you most probably know, we share a campus with the University of New Brunswick. We are very proud of that relationship, and I think that the University of New Brunswick is as well, because it is really a model in Canadian terms. We share a campus yet we maintain our academic independence and so does UNB, and our students can move back and forth from course to course at either university. In addition, our students use the same library, same recreational facilities and the same Student Union Building. What has happened at St. Thomas is that we have tried to separate and distinguish ourselves from UNB so that we are seen as a distinctive and unique university, and we have been quite successful doing that. For those of you who may not be aware, we do not offer science courses at STU. What we offer is a broad range of liberal arts, humanities and social science courses, and we offer professional programs in education and social work. We have worked to develop out of that base, in the context of our university mission, to further develop program offerings for this university. In fact, I think that since the last 5 or 10 years St. Thomas has taken on a new vigour, and has really moved in a number of directions. And what we are always amazed about as administrators and academic leaders at this university is that when we talk to people in the community their perception of us does not often accord where we are now as an institution. For example: We currently have around 2200 students fulltime equivalent students, and that has changed substantially. About six years ago we were 1200 students, so we have almost doubled our enrollment in six years. We believe that this is because students are really seeing in the 90's the value of a liberal arts education and are responding to some of our new program initiatives. I would also like to note that we have one of the best scholarship program for our students in Canada. Last year we gave about $700,000 to our students in scholarships, all of which comes out of established endowments at this university.

One other message, and its a money message, is that over the past several years St. Thomas has been successfully undertaking a large national campaign and has raised just under ten million dollars. I would like to point out, and we take every opportunity we can to acknowledge the contribution and leadership of Senator Noël Kinsella in establishing and carrying out this campaign. More important than raising the money is what we have done with the money as a university. First of all, we have been able to carry out significant campus redevelopment. If you haven't had the opportunity, and its going to be a beautiful day today, I would suggest that during noon hour you take a walk down the hill and what you will see is a very substantial change to St. Thomas University campus. A new building is in place and what has also happened is significant change in the landscaping - we have changed the macro environment of the campus which gives the university definition and character, allows our students and professors to integrate and talk after classes, and perhaps most significantly has provided accessibility for disabled people.

Another aspect to this fund raising was the establishment of an endowed Chair in Canadian Citizenship and Human Rights. An endowed chair is where enough money is assembled and placed into an investment account, and a service is then provided just on the interest. What this amount of money has done through the endowed chair in citizenship and human rights is to give us an ongoing legacy where someone or some people can be on campus specifically focused on continued academic activities in the areas of citizenship and human rights. We are very excited about that development, and in fact that development is very instrumental in what is happening here today. That particular chair compliments chairs that already exist at STU in the area of native studies, gerontology and catholic theology. In fact, these chairs have not just randomly been assembled, they really evolved out of this university's mission statement. We are a university that is primarily concerned with people, ideas and values. We are an institutions with a social conscience, and we believe that our endowed chairs further that mission for us. These ideas have really directed and led St. Thomas since it began in Chatham in 1910, and have continued to focus what we are trying to achieve since we moved to Fredericton in 1964.

One other aspect of St. Thomas's mission statement that is relevant today is the statement that says "we see ourselves as an important community resource; we welcome the opportunity to share our facilities, talents and expertise with others; to form partnerships with groups and organizations whether they are next door or around the world". And I think this sense of partnering is just now becoming more prevalent in the 90's as people are forced to down size and look for better, more efficient ways to do things, but at STU we have been focusing on partnering for many years. Partnering is behind the kinds of new programming initiatives that we are taking. For example, just recently we announced a new program for a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism. We are just delighted to say that this is the first degree program in journalism in New Brunswick, and I think in all of Atlantic Canada, where a community college and a university have partnered together to provide a new degree program. We are partnering with the New Brunswick Community College in Woodstock; we are combing the resources that they have had together for their two year certificate program in journalism, and combining that with our liberal arts opportunities and developed a new program in journalism.

Now its in that same sense and spirit of cooperation, responding to community needs being concerned about social values, that St. Thomas University is announcing that as of this fall we will be offering a Major in Criminology in our Bachelor of Arts Programme. This programme has developed out of an established need that we have been told about continually throughout the time that we have had the Certificate in Criminology. No such degree exists in Atlantic Canada. As a result of the efforts of a task group consisting of St. Thomas University professors, representatives from both the provincial and federal Solicitor General's Offices, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Division we have put together a program of what would be required and what would best suit the needs of the field and the students to enter into the area of criminology. As I mentioned this program will begin in September, and we are extremely excited by this new opportunity because it is consistent with the kinds of things that we at St. Thomas believe are important. That is issues of social justice and issues of partnering with the community. I bring this to you as an announcement today because we hope that you will spread the word on our behalf as an institution. We know that we will require the continued cooperation of people within the field to provide opportunities for our students both while they are in the programme and after they graduate.

In addition to starting the Major in Criminology, we carried out several studies last year on what the field required in educational services, and both of the studies we commissioned indicated a strong need for continuing education for people working in the field of criminology. I think that today's activity is evidence that we are going to try our best to respond to that need, and we will work with our advisory groups to continue to provide continuing educational experiences for people in the field who wish to carry out further professional development. So that is why we are here today: this is an extension of our commitment as a university, our interest in criminology, and our interest in you as professionals. As I was thinking about welcoming you this morning and making these comments, I was thinking about Abdul Lodhi. Unfortunately I have never had an opportunity to meet Abdul Lodhi because his untimely death preceded my arrival on campus. But I do know him by reputation, and I do know that he was absolutely committed to the cause of social justice and human rights. I am sure that he would be delighted to know that his hard work has led to today's announcement of a criminology major, and I know that he would have been even more excited to be able to look around the room and to see so many people from the community share that interest. I believe you have chosen to come to an important workshop Corrections and Community Relations, and I wish you good luck with this conference and I would like to thank you very much for coming; your attendance will I am sure lead to its success. Good luck and enjoy your day.

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© 2007 Atlantic Human Rights Centre, St. Thomas University