March 5, 2025

Dear President Lenton, Provost Peters and Dean McMurtry:

We are writing as members of the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies at Brock University to express our strong opposition to York University’s suspension of new admissions of first year majors to 18 undergraduate programs, including Gender and Women’s Studies and Sexuality Studies.

We are deeply concerned that this suspension of admissions will hamper the influential education, research, policy and community work of the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies (GSWS) at York University. GSWS is one of the largest, most highly regarded and well-established programs in the field. This suspension will undermine the academic integrity of GSWS’ programs, as well as diminish the cultural significance of the field. Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary field at the forefront of praxis for social justice, and contributes to Indigenous, anti-racist and anti-ableist scholarship, as well as feminist, queer and trans studies. The increasing economic and social inequities on local, national and global scales, and the heightened violence against marginalized groups requires the expansion of the very programs that York University has chosen to reduce.

In this regard, we are also profoundly disheartened with York University’s decision to suspend admissions to the Indigenous Studies program. We urge you to reverse this decision and continue your full support of Indigenous Studies, and the gender, women and sexuality studies programs. Indeed, we believe these stand-alone programs are crucial since they help students and aspiring scholars understand and respond to the increasing levels of profound inequality in contemporary life. It is alarming that York University has chosen to disregard its own Indigenous Framework for York University, York University’s Academic Plan and York’s Mission and Core Values, as well as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action. The Indigenous Studies program must be supported as the backbone of a university that is committed to accounting for historical and current injustices and advancing decolonial futures.

We submit that York University’s failure to adequately support a diversity of programs, and specifically programs that enhance equity and social justice harms its reputation as a global and national leader in higher education. As one of the largest and most revered universities in Canada, it is imperative that York University confront economic challenges without weakening its commitment towards decolonization, equity and inclusion.

We stand with the faculty, students and staff in the affected programs and call on York University to reverse this decision and engage in meaningful consultation with university members and the wider community.

The Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies
Brock University
St. Catharines, ON