By Brenda Molina-Navidad
Ryerson fashion communication students have been reinstated into the course for Mass Exodus—an annual end-of-year fashion event, after a glitch in the enrolment system.
The course is open to both fashion communication and creative industries students. According James Nadler, the Chair of Creative Industries, one-third of spots in Fashion promotion are held for creative industries students.
This year a glitch in the enrolment system removed creative industries students from the course and replaced them with fashion students. Nadler said student affairs coordinators spotted the glitch quickly, but additional fashion students in Fashion promotion were told they will have to leave the course this year and have the option of taking the course next year- in order to allow spots for creative industries students.
As previously reported by The Eyeopener, at the start of the Fall semester the fashion program offered 35 seats in Fashion promotion. According to Katie Ferreira, a fashion communication student, there were 36 students enrolled when she checked RAMSS earlier this month. Last year 50 spots were offered.
Katie Ferreira and Amanda Ho, fashion communication students, created a petition on change.org requesting that more spots be open to fashion students after they were emailed that they were not enrolled in the course for Mass Exodus. Within a week their petition received 145 signatures.
Then, on Sept. 14, Ferreira and Ho were one of # fashion students to receive an email from instructors welcoming them back to the Mass Exodus course.
Henry Navarro Delgado, an assistant professor at Ryerson’s School of Fashion and Fashion promotion instructor, said through email that the School of Fashion’s decision to increase the capacity in the course was a response to the petition. He added that the fashion school believes it is the most appropriate solution.
According to Ferreira, the Fashion school contacted the fashion students who chose fashion promotion in their course intention but were later removed to see if they were interested in joining the course.
“It really shows that if you do speak up and voice your concerns in a reasonable way and respectable way you will be heard and helped,” says Ho.
According to Daniel Drak, a contract lecturer and project strategist at Ryerson’s School of Fashion, the course capacity increased from 36 to 44 students.
Of those 44 students, 30 are fashion communication students and 14 are from creative industries.
Third-year creative industries student, Meg Power, was enrolled in Fashion promotion during course intentions then later received an email from her academic coordinator that there were no spots left. Power said both creative industries and fashion communication students deserve to have the opportunity to work on Mass Exodus, although she understands why the petition from fashion students was created.
Power says that the creative industries program is mainly theory-based but the Mass Exodus course gives students hands-on experience and is a course where creative industries and fashion students can learn from each other.
“This is the experience that’s going to tell me what I can and cannot handle. Mass Exodus was the chance to explore the hands on theory that we were learning, and we would never get that chance again,” says Power.
As for the second request on the petition – to implement a ‘fashion students first’ policy, Ho said that it is unclear what will happen for future students
Nadler said that course for Mass Exodus is an opportunity for creative industries and fashion students to bring their expertise together to produce the event. He added that the issue this year was a computer glitch and the creative industries administration is working with the school of fashion to find ways that this doesn’t happen again.
Leave a Reply