Fight to save Sheridan College program cancelled amid international student crisis picks up steam in Mississauga

Late last year, college faculty and students across Canada learned that dozens of programs, many of which boast significant domestic student enrollment, would be cut in response to the federal government’s cap on international students.

While the news came as a shock to many, learning that Sheridan College’s relatively new creative writing and publishing program was on the chopping block prompted alarmed staff and students to launch a campaign to save courses that they say don’t just enrich learners, but also Canada’s small but important publishing industry. 

“I looked at the list of programs that were cut and with very few exceptions, you can study the subjects at other institutions. Our program is entirely unique in terms of creative writing and publishing industry skills,” Dr. Owen Percy, the coordinator of the four-year honours bachelor of arts program that’s run out of the college’s Hazel McCallion Campus in Mississauga, tells INsauga.com.  

Percy says that while current students have been told they can complete their degree, learning the program was on the list of 40 programs slated to be cut in response to incoming caps on international students (who often pay significantly higher tuition fees than domestic students) was distressing for those who found the program offered unique access to the country’s publishing industry. 

“The cry to save the program is coming out of a community concerned that all the writers and people who are on the edge of a creative career aren’t going to have the home that they would have had in the post-secondary world in the GTA and across Canada,” he says. 

Percy, who Sheridan hired 11 years ago to help develop the program with other faculty members, says it’s only grown in popularity since its official launch in 2017. When the course emerged, it received more interest than coordinators expected, prompting the college to expand the number of enrollment spaces to 75. 

Despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic, Percy says the program has been doing well and that staff and students were shocked to learn it was being suspended. 

“This came as a huge shock to us. We had no idea it was even remotely possible. We were miffed by the fact that in the announcement, it was said that Sheridan is doubling down on its commitment to the creative industry and they cut our program, which has the word creative in the title.” 

The creative writing program is indeed one of many arts-focused courses facing suspension. 

The 40 programs that will be put on hold include game level design, honours bachelor of photography, visual and creative arts –– advanced diploma, journalism and more. 

“In response to a particularly challenging external environment, Sheridan has made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce and restructure our administration, suspend 40 programs, as well as conduct an efficiency review for 27 additional programs,” Janet Morrison, president and vice-chancellor of Sheridan College, said in an email to INsauga.com. 

“These changes are required for Sheridan to remain a financially sustainable and vibrant community in response to chronic underfunding, changing government policies, and social, technological, and economic disruption.”

Morrison’s statement says the college expects to have about 30 per cent fewer students in the coming years, which will lead to a loss of approximately $112 million in revenue in the next fiscal year. The loss, Morrison writes, has forced the college to reduce expenses. Despite cutting back on administrative roles and “finding efficiencies,” Morrison says program suspensions became “unavoidable.” 

Sheridan isn’t the only college that has cut programming in the wake of the cap. The cap, announced last year, was initiated in response to concerns that the significant influx of international students was taking academic spots away from Canadians, contributing to the housing shortage, and causing economic impacts.

Last week, Centennial College also announced it was suspending courses in response to the cap.

When asked about the campaign to save the creative writing program, Sheridan representatives did not provide any specific comments. 

Since the program suspensions were announced, staff and students in the program have begun making a concerted effort to convince Sheridan administrators to reconsider. 

Late last year, three students launched a social media campaign titled Save Creative Writing and Publishing and have been hard at work gathering testimonials not just from professors and current and former students, but also from big names in Canada’s publishing industry, including Canadian poet and writer Michael Ondaatje, author, poet and playwright Elyse Friedman, Lesley Fletcher (who is the executive director of the League of Canadian Poets) and others. 

Ariane Subala, a third-year student and one of the campaign’s founders, tells INsauga.com that losing the program won’t just mean losing a crucial link to the publishing industry, but also an entire community. 

“It’s a small community but very much like a family. The professors care about us and get resources that benefit us so we can prepare for the workforce. My peers and I feel a strong connection to the program, which is why we started the campaign in the first place,” Subala says. 

“A lot of people were devastated and that turned into motivation to do something to protect the program.”

Subala says that initially, she and the other organizers thought of sending letters to administrators but realized that a social media campaign full of testimonials from staff, students, industry insiders and prolific Canadian authors and poets would be more impactful. 

“It turned into something bigger than we thought it would.” 

Subala says she and her classmates launched the campaign with the help of Cassidy McFadzean, the program’s current writer-in-residence.

McFadzean, who was hired to fulfill the writer-in-residence role for the 2024/2025 academic year, says the suspension is shocking because the quality of work graduates produce is a testament to the program’s success.

“I work with students one-on-one and many are producing work of publishable quality,” McFadzean tells INsauga.com, adding that the hands-on experience is also unmatched. 

“The internships are an essential part of this program. It doesn’t just give creative writing experience but work experience, which is essential when it comes to breaking into the publishing industry.”

A program alumni, David Stevens, agrees that what is most special about the program is its ability to launch the careers of students seeking to contribute to Canada’s literary and publishing industries. 

“From an industry standpoint, it’s harmful because Canada’s publishing industry is strong for what it is, but it [struggles to compete against the] the United Kingdom and the United States, which are massive producers of culture. You need a place to start and support small creators and build them up so we can have a Canadian identity against these two forces,” Stevens tells INsauga.com. 

Stevens says that beyond teaching students about the craft of writing, it offers them ample opportunities to gain experience by publishing poetry, fiction, non-fiction, essays and book reviews in the Ampersand Review (the program’s own literary magazine) and networking with people in the industry. 

The program also hosts The Ampersand Festival, which the program’s website says connects the Canadian writing and publishing communities through keynote speeches, a workshop series, expert panels and a “celebratory soirée.” 

“We work in a micro-press and we go to these events and we’re very connected to the students that are there,” Stevens says. 

“A lot of other programs are focused on the history of literature and comprehension and rhetoric. We had that, but it was also focused on the publishing industry itself. It gives writers the ability to start somewhere, build relationships, and connect with all the presses.  Some people are focusing on editing, others on writing. This provides the community with a great place to start and it integrated itself really well.”

As for whether the administration is listening, program coordinator Percy says it’s tough to predict what will happen going forward, even as the campaign to save the program persists. 

“We’re still in conversation with the administration. We laid out our arguments. I’m not expecting much to come, but we’re still, in theory, in conversation,” Percy says, adding that he’s hoping that perhaps a well-known donor might step in to save the program.

Ultimately, he and other students say they feel let down. 

“There is a hunger for creative writing in response to the rise of AI; people want to tell unique stories. Our program is the only one in Canada that offers formal undergraduate education in publishing–editing, publicity, marketing, and even production. That doesn’t exist at the undergraduate level in Canada. When [the college] says they’re doubling down on creative industries–well, not this one. It’s not big enough to worry about for them. It’s dismissive of the students and us.”