The Manitoba Women’s Institute is against it.
Manitoba’s home economists are dead set against it.
Even the premier’s wife opposes a University of Manitoba proposal to dissolve its home economics department.
Janice Filmon appeared at the university’s recent public hearings as a graduate of the faculty of human ecology and urged the school to keep the family component linked to other parts of the degree.
Of 30 briefs presented to the university relating to its proposal to divide the program, almost all asked that the course be kept together, said Rosanne Sutton, president of the Manitoba Association of Home Economists.
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The home economics dean, Ruth Berry, is suggesting a large faculty of human health and wellness could be created from home ec, nursing, medical rehabilitation, physical education and social work programs.
“The basic message was ‘don’t break us up’ like happened at (the universities of) Saskatchewan and Alberta,” said Sutton.
Considered less important
“Another option would be to combine us with agriculture.” That would be a step back, she said, because the family and consumer elements would be limited, while science and theory would be emphasized. Sutton said that’s what happened when the U of S dissolved its home ec college in 1990 and moved the food and nutrition course to the college of pharmacy. She said the students don’t gain the basic experience of working with real families.
Also, the loss of the professional college has led to a shortage in trained home economists in public schools, said Gayleen Turner, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Home Economists.
From Alberta, where the college’s courses are divided into a food area and the rest under the agriculture college, the number of home ec students is falling, Sutton said.
Dean Berry said the U of M report is a draft but little reason was given for splitting up home ec among four other colleges. The proposal would move family studies to the psychology department and the food area to agriculture.
“That’s problematic as well,” said Berry, because the ag college’s mission statement says nothing about human health and food. The dean also noted the ag college has 36 students in food science while home ec has 257 and suggested some shoring up of smaller colleges was done by parcelling out home ec’s 560 undergraduates and 75 grad students.
Relate to rural residents
The U of M home ec faculty was created in 1970 from the ag college and is the last independent college among the 20 programs and schools in Canada, said Berry. She said the college has a strong connection with rural people since many students come from a rural background, having seen home economists through 4-H or in agriculture offices.
Berry said the university wants a decision this winter on the faculty’s future but it must be approved first by the university’s senate and board of governors.
“If they think they’ve heard from us now, just wait,” said Berry, noting the college’s 5,000 alumni should have some say.
The Manitoba Women’s Institute was one of the groups at the hearing supporting the concept of a home ec faculty either on its own or under a wellness umbrella.
In an interview, MWI president Barbara Stienwandt said: “We just felt they should really stop and seriously look at the implications in the job market.” She said there is a major outcry in the province about university restructuring, and its impact on rural Manitoba should be examined.
For at least 25 years the MWI has had a representative on its board from the home ec faculty.
The province’s agriculture department has 17 home economist positions in rural Manitoba. Deborah Lyall, head of the department’s home ec section, said they need people with a wide base of knowledge who understand family and consumer issues.
“There is some concern for sure about the employability of home ec grads from a new segregated faculty. There will not be that broad-based training that we like,” she said.
