UPDATE – Call to Action! Help Save the University of Manitoba Archival Studies Program

November 7, 2017

An update to last month’s Call to Action! Help Save the University of Manitoba Archival Studies Program:

Hello Everyone,

We have some good news to share. A small victory has been achieved by our campaign to save the UM Archival Studies Program. In just over a week, we have received letters from over 100 supporters in the archival community in Manitoba, across Canada, and internationally. We have heard from the former National Archivist and Librarian, the Nelson Mandela Foundation in South Africa, as well as from the national and provincial associations, just to name a few respondents. We have heard not only from fellow archivists, archival educators, graduates and current MA students, but also from several historical societies, federal government departments, Indigenous organizations, and our colleagues in the library and information studies field.

This week, we received a written statement from Dr. Tina Chen, Head of the History Department, committing the University to hosting community and stakeholder consultations prior to the implementation of program changes.

In light of Dr. Chen’s statement, we have decided to cancel the planned gathering outside of the meeting room on Wednesday, November 8th. Our goal has been to stall the exclusive decision making processes and to make our voices heard. We have achieved that goal, and we do not wish to be counter-productive or antagonize meeting attendees as we will need to work alongside them to achieve positive outcomes in the wake of the public consultations.

We will keep a close eye on future developments. Should there be a need for any further action, we will alert the archival community on the situation.

Thanks again for your positive show of support. It has been amazing and we should feel proud.

Sincerely,

Heather Bidzinski
Chair, Association for Manitoba Archives

Sarah Story and Mary Horodyski
Archival Advocates, Joint Master’s in Archival Studies & History Program
Co-Chairs, AMA Information and Outreach Committee

Sara Min, Chair and Jason Carrie, Vice-Chair
University of Manitoba ACA Student Chapter