Colleagues,
I am writing to let you know that, after much deliberation among myself, Associate Dean of Research Jim Dunn, and Director of Finance and Administration, Juliette Prouse, I have made the difficult decision to wind down Spark to close at the end of this academic year, June 30, 2025. This was not an easy decision, but the Faculty’s financial situation requires difficult choices. I want to thank the many people who have contributed to Spark’s successes, but most especially Michelle Dion and Allison Van, who have worked tirelessly to build Spark’s programming to support the research needs of Social Science faculty, graduate students and staff.
The genesis for Spark goes back ten years when then Dean Yates established a working group comprising a number of faculty, including me, to explore the idea of establishing a Faculty-wide, methods-focused research centre, an idea I have strongly supported as Dean. In the five years since it officially opened (initially as “CRESS”), Spark has achieved many important successes, including supporting the research of many in this Faculty. In the end our Faculty is just too small to sustain a centre like Spark in today’s fiscal climate.
A few points bear emphasizing. The wind-down will be gradual through this academic year as Spark fulfills its many commitments. During this academic year, therefore, the Spark Co-Lab will still be available to support graduate students and research teams, Spark Talks will continue as planned, research consultations will be available, SEAL will operate, and so forth. We will also use this time to explore how we might continue some valued Spark services and programming (e.g., the speaker series, the co-lab) outside the context of a formal research centre.
I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about this decision.
Below is a message Michelle and Allison asked to include in this announcement.
Best,
Jerry
A Message From Allison and Michelle:
We, Allison Van and Michelle Dion, want to thank the Faculty’s leadership and staff for their support and enthusiasm for Spark‘s mission these last five plus years. They have provided invaluable guidance and been highly engaged partners in our efforts. We are incredibly proud of Spark’s accomplishments and the work of the Centre’s staff and student interns. We are also grateful that so many colleagues within the Faculty of Social Sciences and across campus have partnered with Spark to support innovative social research.
We look forward to continuing this work in our final year and hope you will join us next spring, when we plan to host a celebration of Spark.
While this news has been hard for our devoted team, we recognize that we collectively worked tirelessly to build a sustainable and deeply contributing centre. We will do all we can to ensure that many aspects of Spark’s services that have been valuable will find other homes within McMaster.
– Allison and Michelle
