The retirement of SMU professor Peter March has left a class of first-year students stuck in a course they don’t want to take.
By Whitney Hooper <whitneyhooper@dal.ca>
Posted: Jan. 24, 2008
First-year students at Saint Mary’s University are frustrated with their philosophy course. Photo: Whitney Hooper
The students at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax have a love/hate relationship with Professor Peter March.
In February of 2006 about 100 students marched in protest against the professor when he posted caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad on his office door.
March ended his 30-year controversial career with SMU over Christmas break, leaving a first-year full-year philosophy course to be taken over by another professor for the winter semester.
This time students did not want to see him go.
“We gave the guy a chance I suppose, and he’s a good prof, but it’s just not the same at all,” one first-year student says of March's replacement.
Jeff Mitchell describes March’s teaching methods in his introductory philosophy course as “interactive.”
March says he tried to show students the philosophical issues that exist in the issues of the day. It was through this method that March first decided to bring the Muhammad caricatures into discussion.
“It produces an absolutely entertaining, amusing, delightful, captivating kind of atmosphere,” says March of his teaching methods with a laugh. “Great fun!”
Mitchell says it was through the controversial discussions that March encouraged that he learned best.
The 34-signature petition that Jeff Mitchell circulated in his first-year philosophy class. Photo: Whitney Hooper
On the second day of classes, Mitchell decided to ask the school administration if he could drop out of the winter half of the philosophy course and take a different course in its place.
“I went to the administration and they weren’t very receptive,” he says. “So then I decided to go to the class and ask for their support.”
That support came in the form of a petition. Mitchell asked for everyone who wanted to drop the course since March left to sign a petition. There were 34 students in the class that day and Mitchell got 34 signatures.
March says he knew his retirement would cause some problems with this particular class when he started discussing the possibility with the administration months before the Christmas break.
“The negotiations went on and on and finally I said, ‘Look, you’ve got to make up your minds what you’re going to do with this other course. There’s no need to interrupt it, I’ll gladly teach it.' I made my offer that I would do it for nothing and they sort of looked surprised,” says March of his conversation with the administration. “They went off and talked to the president and the president just said, 'No.'”
Mitchell says it isn’t just the change in professor that the students are upset with, but that the course requirements and curriculum have also changed.
Jeff Mitchell is disappointed that the university won’t address his concerns. Photo: Whitney Hooper
At this point, Mitchell hasn’t heard much from the university, despite meeting with several members of the administration.
He did hear from one administrator, who offered the students in the class the option to withdraw from the course.
Mitchell says withdrawing is unreasonable. If he withdrew from the class, he would not get credit for the fall semester of the course.
Paul Fitzgerald, Public Affairs Officer at SMU, says the university cannot comment on the situation.
March says he’s grateful to SMU for the retirement package they gave him, but he’s disappointed with how this situation is being handled.
Mitchell is meeting with the president of the university on Tuesday morning, but says he doesn’t think much will change.
“For future students who have no idea about this, I’m just trying to bring light to an issue. I’m sure this happens all over the province and Canada for that matter,” he says. “It’s just not fair. I’m now paying for something that I don’t want.”
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