Large-scale support comes out for sustainability and engineers
Concordia’s Student Congress met on Friday, Nov. 21 to discuss and come to an accord on several issues among the assembled student groups, ultimately passing motions concerning student space, engineering minors, and sustainability.
Since the congress represents the largest assembly of student groups it was decided to adhere to high voting standards, by asking for a 90 per cent voting threshold. This meant several motions did not pass, but several big ones did.
The Engineering & Computer Science Association (ECA) successfully argued to allow engineering students to take a minor should they want to. Up until now, the 120-credit engineering bachelor program has denied engineering students the possibility of choosing minors or taking classes outside their department.
An initiative to add a mandatory 200-level course on sustainability to each program was initially rejected because of concerns it would needlessly overlap with existing courses in certain faculties. There were also criticisms that adding an extra course would delay graduation for some programs (such as biology, in which students have difficulties as it is graduating on time) by up to a full year. The proposal was later passed after amendments agreed to the necessity of the idea, but left the actual details—such as the level and nature of the course—open to future discussion.
The successful motions aren’t binding in any way to the university administration but they do signal a strong desire of the student body, via their student group representatives, of the direction they would prefer the school to pursue.
