The School of Administrative Studies is undergoing the complicated process of having the BCom degree approved from a number of bureaucratic entities at York.
There was a proposal to change the degree back in 2002. However, the proposal never made it to Senate level.
York’s Senate and Board of Governors are being petitioned to change the name of the Bachelor of Administrative Studies degree to a Bachelor of Commerce degree, this time, with higher hopes for success.
The BAS is a business program part of the School of Administrative Studies.
However, many students find that the “BAS” name does not appropriately represent the business program. Therefore, they desire a name change to BCom, which they believe is more fitting. A major issue brought up by supporters of the petition is that the current name of the program is confusing and is not recognizable to employers.
The proposal for the degree name change from BAS to BCom was unanimously endorsed by the School’s Curriculum and Coordinators Committee in its meeting on January 12. This endorsement is moving forward to the next faculty council meeting.
“The School of Administrative Studies School meeting voted unanimously to request York University to change the BAS degree name to Bachelor of Commerce to allow all students granted the BAS prior to this change to choose either BAS or BCom degree name and to effect the change by Fall 2017,” says Chris Robinson, associate professor of finance in administrative studies.
The next step in the process involves consideration of the proposal at the Faculty of LAPS’ Curriculum, Curricular Policy and Standards Committee.
The School of Administrative Studies has submitted the proposal to CCPS. The CCPS meets on the first Wednesday of every month, and the next meeting will be today. If this proposal is approved by the LAPS faculty council, the proposal will go to Senate level for a full Senate vote.
“Dean [Ananya] Mukherjee-Reed supports this change and has worked to get it to move forward as fast as possible,” says Robinson.
Robinson expects opposition at Senate from Schulich School of Business, but remains optimistic.
Ryan Moore, News Editor
