York University professors seek court order to stop program suspensions

A student leaves campus at York University in Toronto on Thursday, March 20, 2025. Four senators at York University and a member of its academic planning and research committee are asking for a judicial review of the institution's decision to suspend admission to several undergraduate programs. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

TORONTO — Four senators at York University and a member of its academic planning and research committee are seeking a judicial review of the school’s decision to suspend admissions to several undergraduate programs – a move they allege was made unilaterally and unlawfully.

The university has said it is temporarily suspending new admissions to 18 degree programs in the fall of 2025, including Indigenous studies, gender and women’s studies and environmental biology programs.

Members of the university’s senate and academic planning and research committee have filed an application with the Divisional Court branch of Ontario Superior Court, asking it to order York University to rescind the program suspensions.

The applicants are arguing that York University’s senate has jurisdiction over academic matters and suspending admissions to programs requires the senate’s involvement and approval. They are also asking the court to declare the program suspension decisions unlawful and unreasonable. The application says “at least 19” programs and courses of study are affected.

Dennis Pilon, a professor and one of the York senators behind the application, said the university’s board of governors is responsible for managing the finances and academic decisions are the purview of the senate.

“The senate is the body that is to make the decisions about academic matters on campus, and that is not what is occurring,” Pilon told a group of students, faculty and staff members protesting the program suspensions on campus Wednesday.

Pilon said the aim of the legal action is not to determine whether suspending programs is good or bad for the school, its staff and students.

“It’s about where the decision should be made and who should be making that decision, and how do we assure that the proper approaches are taken,” he said.

“Through a succession of events, we have seen a slow, sometimes not slow, takeover of senate power by the administration and by the board of governors,” he added. “This has happened through a process of redefining everything as being a financial decision. Everything is ultimately economic, and then ultimately it means it’s the board’s responsibility.”

A York spokesperson said the university has just received the judicial review application and will respond to it “in due course.”

Yanni Dagonas said in a statement that enrolments at many of the suspended programs are low.

“The university is temporarily suspending new fall 2025 admissions to 18-degree programs that have shown low enrolment, with 12 of these programs having fewer than three students projected to enrol in fall 2025,” he wrote, adding that York believes in the “intellectual value” of the programs.

“The ultimate goal is to support faculty members to revise and update the degree programs to attract a larger cohort of students and to ensure their long term viability whether as full degree offerings, or in other forms such as a minor or area of concentration within a more general degree,” he wrote.

Dagonas said post-secondary institutions have been grappling with financial challenges due to “the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, challenging geopolitical conditions and abrupt policy changes at home, including restrictions on international students.”

York Federation of Students president Aissata Hann said the program suspensions were very disappointing, especially because students and faculty learned about them from the media.

“The biggest frustration and the biggest concern that students have is that there was a severe lack of consultation with students,” she said in an interview. “There are students who are currently enrolled in these programs, so if you’re suspending admissions, how would this then affect those who are like in the middle of completing their studies?”

She said York has told students who are currently in the suspended programs that it’s going to provide them with a path to graduation.

“That just means that ... they’re just going to be offered a bunch of random non-related general education courses which I don’t think is fair because you signed up for a very specific degree, you should be able to take classes that are related to that degree,” she said.

Hann said the suspensions are ironic because York has been “hammering in on retention rates and attracting new students and wanting to ensure that the reputation of the school gets better.”

“I have a brother who’s in Grade 12 right now and has already applied to his schools. The conversations that I’ve had with him is that York is very shaky and it’s unsteady.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2025.

Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press