Author: Marilla Steuter-Martin

Concordia’s administration will be undergoing some major changes in the next few months.

Interim President Frederick Lowy’s term will be over in August and the presidential advisory search committee has been deliberating over a shortlist of candidates.

“The search process is proceeding well and it is expected that the name of the recommended candidate will be made public in the next few weeks,” said Concordia spokesperson Chris Mota.

Under the rules of the committee, only one name will be announced as the official recommendation. In terms of student involvement in the process, Mota explained that there are two students on the advisory search committee.

Once the name is released, “the recommended candidate makes a public presentation and all members of the community are encouraged to submit their comments following the public meeting,” said Mota.

There will be more than one new face at Concordia next year. Come July 1, the Board of Governors will be reduced to 25 members and current chair Peter Kruyt will be replaced.

The board’s governance and ethics committee, which has external members, faculty members, a staff member and a student member on it, is responsible for recommending any new external members as well as the chair of the board, explained Mota.

“They are going about their work and will be making their recommendations to the board at the June meeting,” she said.

Concordia Student Union President Lex Gill said that “the motivation for a smaller board was to create more dialogue at the meetings themselves rather than through backroom deals, though I doubt that’s a promising outcome in actuality.”

Gill explained that two student representatives would also be chosen to sit on the board for the 2012-13 academic year.

“One is chosen by the [CSU] executive, normally the president, and the other chosen by council,” she explained. Under new rules that will come into effect July 1, undergraduates will only have one representative with voting rights, while the other representative will have speaking rights only at the board level.

Ever since Education Minister Line Beauchamp sent a letter to the board in early March informing them that Concordia was going to be fined $2 million for its sometimes questionable handling of public funds, Concordia’s finances have been in the spotlight.

This much talked of move came shortly after Concordia released documents to the public concerning several generous severance packages given out to five senior employees over the past few years, totalling $2.4 million.

Just prior to receiving Beauchamp’s letter, Concordia made the decision to hire external auditors to review the $2.4 million handed out between 2009 and 2010. According to Mota, the Board of Governors’ audit committee has selected PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct the review. The cost of hiring these auditors is estimated at $25,000 and was approved by the Board of Governors on March 2.

“The [auditors’] report is due by the end of June and a summary of the results will be made public,” said Mota.

Following a Fine Arts Student Alliance general assembly on April 2, which once again failed to meet quorum, more than 70 students held a sit-in outside Concordia President Frederick Lowy’s office.
After an hour or so of occupation, Lowy agreed to speak to the students who were gathered on the 15th floor of the MB building, and before leaving promised to arrange another meeting where students could express their concerns.
Fine Arts student and senator Andy Filipowich said that a lot of the students occupying the hallway outside the president’s office were FASA students, and more from other departments joined once they heard the sit-in was happening.
“It was a great show of solidarity [from] a lot of students at Concordia,” said Filipowich.
The students demanded to speak with Lowy concerning a number of statements issued to the Concordia community at large over the past few weeks about the university’s firm “business as usual” stance on the strike.
Many voiced their desire for academic amnesty and threatened to continue the sit-in until their demands were met. Once it was decided that Lowy would come out to speak with the group, and that university spokesperson Chris Mota would moderate the discussion, students called for a moderator of their own.
FASA students have been on an unlimited strike since March 1 and have twice failed to meet quorum at successive general assemblies, preventing them from voting again on whether to continue the strike, or cancel it.
“There was a collective decision [that] because the strike was going to continue, there was going to be some action,” said Filipowich. The group unanimously selected Filipowich to be the moderator, while Mota stood in the background.
“The students needed someone to moderate and I was happy to do it,” he said.
Lowy stated to the group that “the people who are choosing not to come to class are the students who are endangering their semesters,” and that academic amnesty was not being considered at this time.
He said that Quebec universities are “underfunded” in comparison with other Canadian schools. Without tuition increases, he would be concerned about “issues of quality.”
“The fact of the matter is that we’ve been doing everything possible to get funding elsewhere,” he told the students. “The [provincial] government says ‘we have no more money to give you’ so we’re saying, let the students help us out.”
A speakers list was established and students took turns voicing opinions about the administration’s approach to the student strike. After a discussion period, Lowy informed students that he had to leave, but would gladly resume the meeting at a later date.
“I’m free to meet with you at a mutually acceptable time,” he said. “As it happens, I’m free tomorrow morning.”
CSU President Lex Gill, who was in attendance at the occupation, offered to facilitate the logistical aspects of organizing the meeting so that it could take place within the week.
Also on the 15th floor was Board of Governors chair Peter Kruyt, who was watching the meeting unfold. After the meeting, Kruyt told The Concordian that he had not come specifically for the sit-in, but because he had an appointment with the president.
“I knew it was happening,” he said. “I’m not worried, [students] aren’t violent.”
Kruyt declined to comment further on the university’s stance when petitioned by students.
The meeting with Lowy is slated to be scheduled in the near future and the university has agreed to send out an open invitation to the student body via email including the location and time.
Filipowich called the decision a “productive first step” and said he was pleased the occupation had gone smoothly and peacefully.
“There were chances that tempers would flare up, but by having someone moderate, we were able to hear as many people’s voices as possible and were able to arrange another meeting where many more students’ voices could be heard,” he said.