Tag: concordia

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Offensive outburst thrusts Stingers into playoffs

Edem Nyamadi and the Stingers offence ran wild on McGill. Nyamadi had 53 yards rushing on just six carries. Photo by Navneet Pall

On the day when the Stingers needed their A-game the most, it was there. 

Needing a win, or a Bishop’s loss to Laval, Concordia left nothing to chance last Saturday at Molson Stadium, rolling over the McGill Redmen 58-30, and securing themselves a spot in the playoffs. In clinching the game, Concordia also won its ninth-straight Shaughnessy Cup match. The annual football showdown between Concordia and McGill has been taking place since 1969.

The Stingers were given a good fight by the Redmen in the first half, as they led by only three points heading into the second half, but 28 unanswered points in the third quarter sealed it for Concordia.

Concordia is now heading into the RSEQ playoffs as the fourth seed. They’ll travel to Quebec City next week to take on the Laval Rouge et Or.

Laval has already beaten Concordia twice this season, 36-8 and 37-4 in the two meetings. Both games were tough losses where the Stingers failed to score a touchdown in either meetings.

“The first time I think we played them really tough,” said Stingers coach Gerry McGrath. “The second game was our only bad game of the year. We just played terribly up there, and we’ve got a lot of work to do this week to prepare.”

As for the win over McGill, things started quickly for Concordia thanks to strong play on special teams from Kris Robertson.

The halfback has been impressive all season, and after a two-and-out from McGill on the opening drive, Robertson returned a punt 45 yards to the Redmen’s 35.

Raul Thompson scored on the very next play on a 35-yard run for the score. The Stingers and Redmen battled in the first half, with McGill looking to avoid a winless season.

McGill’s Austin Anderson kicked a 43-yard field goal in the final seconds of the half to cut the score to 20-17.

The Redmen had no answer for Concordia in the second half, as the Stingers moved the ball methodically with a short passing game. Concordia started the onslaught with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Sanchez Deschamps. On the next drive, they got the score quickly with a 65-yard touchdown pass to Michael Donnelly who caught the short screen pass and rumbled his way through and around the McGill defence to the end zone.

On McGill’s ensuing drive, linebacker Max Caron intercepted a pass in the red zone to stop the Redmen’s threat. Concordia turned that into more points, as Reid Quest found Kris Bastien for a 40-yard touchdown pass. On the ensuing kickoff, McGill fumbled, giving the Stingers the ball at the McGill 25-yard line. Once again, Concordia capitalized as Quest hit Edem Nyamadi for a five-yard touchdown pass. Quest finished the game with 23 completions on 31 attempts, with 356 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions.

Caron made history in the second half, by breaking the RSEQ single season record for tackles, finishing the season with 78.5. In addition to that, he got his fifth interception of the season in the fourth quarter, and returned it 96 yards for the score.

Caron’s two interceptions brought his season total to five. He finished the season leading the CIS in tackles, solo tackles (67) and interceptions, making him the hands-on favourite to win the Defensive Player of the Year award.

“I just try to come out strong every week,” said Caron. “I’m blessed to have such a great unit around me. I’m fortunate enough to make the plays I did, but the guys around me have been a tremendous help.”

McGrath agrees that Caron deserves the award, but not just for his numbers. “He’s just had a phenomenal year, but what doesn’t show up on his stat sheet is how great of a leader he is.”

McGill added some points late when the game was out of hand, blocking a punt for a score and a late touchdown pass by Ryne Bondy to Michael Chitayat. Bondy broke the school’s single game record for pass attempts with 65.

Now Concordia will look for the huge upset on the road this Saturday. The odds are stacked against them. Laval may beat Concordia nine times out of 10, but all it takes is one win in football.

 

Concordia takes on Laval in Quebec City on Nov. 5 at 1 p.m. in the RSEQ semi-finals.

 

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Concordia loses to McGill in Friday night fight

Stingers lose a chippy game to McGill. Photo by Navneet Pall

The Stingers were in an uproar Friday night after a McGill Redmen shoved Concordia goalie Nicholas Champion, inciting a free-for-all of flying fists.

Stingers lose a chippy game to McGill. Photo by Navneet Pall

Stingers centre Alexis Piette received a fighting major and a game misconduct, and will be suspended as a result.

Despite losing a player for the next game, Concordia head coach Kevin Figsby supported the actions of his players.

“It was cheap and uncalled for,” said Figsby of McGill’s roughing up of Champion. “I’m proud of the guys that stood up for [Champion]. Nobody can do that to us.”

Concordia defeated McGill the previous week in an emotional home win, but extracurricular factors may have played in to Friday’s loss. Figsby said that his players have been tired and stressed all week following midterms. He called the evening a pretty big learning curve.

The Stingers got off to a strong start as they dominated the first period. George Lovatsis scored a goal four minutes in to put the Stingers up 1-0 early. Six minutes later, Alexandre Monahan scored his fourth goal of the season to put Concordia up 2-0.

The Redmen, though, would not relent in the second period. McGill outshot a defensively non-existent Stingers team 18-7 in the second frame.

The end result of the barrage of shots was not surprising. Just 52 seconds into the period, Evan Vossen scored to pull McGill within a goal.

Just under three minutes later, Concordia watched their two-goal lead disappear when Guillaume Langelier-Parent tied the game for McGill.

McGill would bury Concordia for good just over five minutes into the third period.

Alex Picard-Hooper’s shot got past Champion putting the Redmen up 3-2, and ending McGill’s uncharacteristic two-game losing streak.

“We have to follow the game plan better for 60 minutes,” said Stingers defenceman Adam Strumas.

“We need to pull everything together and succeed,” said Champion.

If the Stingers hope to succeed moving forward, they must tighten up their play defensively. Perhaps the biggest cause for concern in the loss was the fact that for the sixth time in eight games, the Stingers were outshot by their opponents. They have allowed more shots on goal than any team in the CIS.

Champion has been able to answer the call more often than not for Concordia, posting a .930 save-percentage (placing him near the top of the CIS) in spite of having a 3.39 goals-against average.

Concordia undoubtedly has strength in the crease, but if the team wants to have true success on the ice this year, they will need to rely on more than just their masked saviour.

 

Concordia next takes the ice on Nov. 4 at home at 7:30 p.m. when they host the Ryerson Rams.

 

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The journey continues in other ways after final out

(Left to right) Marco Masciotra, Jason Katz, Marshall Johnston and Matthew Jacobson played their final games in a Concordia Stingers uniform. Photo by Brian Berkovits

For some players, the bitter pit in their stomach was more than just the feeling of a tough loss to a worthy opponent.

As pitcher Matthew Jacobson, catcher Marshall Johnston, shortstop Marco Masciotra and second baseman Jason Katz watched Durham College make the final out in the CIBA semi-finals, they were also watching the final curtain close on their university baseball careers.

All four players were in their final year of eligibility with the Stingers. For them, there is no “we’ll get ‘em next year.”

“When we were down in the seventh with a couple outs left, it really hit me that it was all over, and I got pretty emotional,” said Jacobson. “Guys congratulated me on the year I’d had, but winning the tournament was what I’d wanted. It was nice to go out on a personal high with the All-Canadian Award as well as a load of memories.”

As captain of the team, Katz tried his hardest to deal with the emotional anvil the best he could before the tournament, as he worried it could affect his on-field performance.

“I tried not to let the fact that it was my last season affect my play, but as the season was coming to an end, it was unavoidable to start putting things into perspective,” he said.

Katz said analyzing everything his team accomplished helped him deal with the fact that his career was drawing to a close. This led to better focus on the field. Unlike his three graduating teammates, though, Katz admitted he will be taking a break from the sport to spend time with his fiancée and other ambitions.

Masciotra is presently weighing his options to go play professional baseball in Italy. Johnston and Jacobson are hoping to stay involved in the game other ways, whether it be coaching, or playing in competitive adult leagues.

“I will always be a part of baseball. It’s not just a sport, its a way of life,” said Johnston.

“I’ve promised myself I won’t turn to softball until my arm falls off,” added Jacobson.

Even professional athletes have attested to the fact that the most difficult part of leaving a sport is not missing the competition; it’s the loss of camaraderie and being a part of a team.

All four players said their years with Concordia were some of the most fun, and hilarious times they had on a ball diamond.

“A lot of crazy things have happened over the years, but I would have to say our team breaking into song [‘Roses’ by Outkast] in the middle of a game was [most] bizarre,” said Masciotra.

Fortunately for the players, while their time as Stingers is over, the relationships they’ve forged are not.

“I’m from B.C. and when I came here to play baseball I had nobody,” said Johnston. “[Manager Howard Schwartz] became my father away from home. We’d have team meetings that turned into family dinners at his place.”

All four players who are leaving have been involved in an epoch of tremendously successful Stingers baseball, climaxing with a 2009 national championship. It has all helped the program gain much needed notoriety.

“I’m excited to see the program grow,” said Johnston. “Baseball players around Quebec are now wanting to be a part of the program. I’m just disappointed I won’t be here for another four years.”

The memories will last in the four players’ minds forever.

It’s knowing that they won’t be on the field again as a team that hurts the most.

 

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Concordia stays put in Maclean’s 2011 university rankings

Concordia University remained in a relatively stable position in this year’s Maclean’s University Rankings, coming in 12th out of 15 universities in the ‘Comprehensive’ category.
The institution found itself in 11th place in 2010 out of 12 universities, but despite its position, school officials are expressing little concern about the effect of the rankings on the university.
“We donʼt expect that this ranking will affect enrollment at all,” said Bradley Tucker, director of institutional planning  and analysis at Concordia. “In 21 years of Macleanʼs rankings, our enrollments have continued to climb and our programs have continued to improve, regardless of our place on the list.”
Twenty-one per cent of Concordia applicants consulted Macleanʼs rankings when choosing a university, according to Tucker.
Tucker said that Macleanʼs doesn’t consider Concordiaʼs greatest drawing points in their rankings: the outstanding reputation of specific programs, and the connections the university gives students within the city of Montreal.
“Our 2006 Reputation Survey told us that the main reason students choose Concordia is because we provide the programs they want in the place they want. Reputation was not as big of an issue,” he said.
The magazine places institutions into one of three categories based on what they offer students: medical doctoral, comprehensive, and primarily undergraduate. With a wide range of programs at both graduate and undergraduate levels, Concordia is considered a comprehensive university.
Statistics Canada provides Macleanʼs with data for all financial indicators including operating budget, spending on student services, scholarships and bursaries, and library expenses and acquisitions.
With roughly 40 per cent of a universityʼs rank depending on these financial statistics, the majority of Quebec universities are left with diminished scores simply because of low financing and government regulation regarding the distribution of bursaries, Tucker said.
While upcoming tuition increases are intended to help resolve some of the finance issues in the province, bursaries in Quebec are directly managed by the provincial government. Tucker said this process has caused $20 million of bursary money destined for Quebec students to go unnoticed by StatsCan and Macleanʼs.
Concordia ranked 25th overall in the nation out of 49 universities. McGill University came in second place nationwide behind the University of Waterloo.

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Sports Briefs

Men’s rugby

Concordia 13 Bishop’s 10

A second half comeback propelled the underdog Stingers into the RSEQ finals.
After a disappointing 1-4-1 season, the Stingers were playing on the road as the underdog against the Bishop’s Gaiters, with a trip to the conference championship on the line.
Bishop’s scored the lone try of the first half and put the Stingers in a hole early in the game.
Concordia’s Adriano D’Angelo converted a penalty late in the half, though, sending the Stingers into the break only trailing by two.
Concordia pulled ahead in the second half on the shoulders of full back Alex Ritchie. Ritchie took a pass 10 yards from the Bishop’s try area and muscled through the Gaiters’ defence to give Concordia the lead.
D’Angelo added another penalty score in the 79th minute to give Concordia a 13-5 lead. The penalty proved crucial, as Bishop’s scored a try just before the final whistle. It was too little too late, though, and Concordia came away victorious.
Concordia will be an even bigger underdog next week when they face the unbeaten McGill Redmen in the RSEQ finals. McGill beat Concordia in both of the teams’ meetings this season.
The game will be on Saturday at 1 p.m. at McGill’s Percival Molson Stadium.

Women’s hockey

Concordia 5 Montréal 4 (SO)

After scoring four goals in the second period, and jumping out to a 4-0 lead, the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team decided to make the game interesting.
The Stingers staked the Univeristé de Montréal Carabins consecutive power plays midway through the second period. The Carabins took advantage both times and cut the Stingers’ lead in half.
With only 2:54 remaining in the second, Kim Deschênes scored for Montréal, sending the teams into intermission battling in a one-goal game.
Montréal completed the comeback scoring with under two minutes remaining in the game.
Having blown such a large lead and losing any momentum it would have been easy for the Stingers to fold in overtime. The Stingers, though, did not allow Montreal a single shot in the extra period and sent the game into a shoot-out.
Concordia goalie Marie-Pier Rémillard, after stopping 34 of 38 shots in the game, stonewalled the Carabins in the shoot-out, stopping all four skaters she faced.
Audrey Gariepy and Véronique Laramée-Paquette score in the shoot-out for Concordia to secure the team’s second win of the season.

Women’s soccer

Sherbrooke 4 Concordia 0
McGill 3 Concordia 0

A tough season came to an even tougher end for the Concordia women’s soccer team.
After a 5-0 win last week against the lowly Bishop’s Gaiters, the Stingers were blown out in their last two appearances on the pitch this season.
Concordia finished second to last in the RSEQ this season with a 2-9-3 record. Jennifer Duff led the team in scoring this season with four goals.

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ConU’s Ronald Rudin receives Trudeau Foundation Fellowship Award

What would you do with $225,000?

For Concordia history professor Ronald Rudin, the answer to this question is getting clearer and clearer each day.

Rudin is a recipient of the Trudeau Foundation Fellowship Award, a distinction awarded to five individuals each fall based on their achievements in research, creativity and social commitment.

“I think this is a further reflection of Concordia being recognized as a place where important research is being done,” said Rudin, who considers the fellowship as a means of highlighting the brilliance of Concordia.

Rudin plans to use his prize money to “develop a series of films dealing with historical topics.” No stranger to filmmaking, Rudin has produced two documentaries on Acadians and French history, Life After ÃŽle Ste-Croix and Remembering a Memory. He now has an opportunity to branch out and try to create something on a larger scale.

“It would be short-sighted just to make something narrowly defined largely done by myself,” said Rudin, who hopes his films will make history engaging to viewers. “Instead it’s an opportunity for me to be able to put together a team of people whose understanding of issues is far beyond my own.”

Telling history in a captivating and ultimately accurate way is a personal goal of Rudin’s.

“The stories we hear are not natural,” he explained, alluding to the way history is presented in modern day society. “Somebody who thinks about the past or even the present has to understand that when they’re confronted with a product, whether a book, a film or a university lecture, they are hearing a version of something. What they are hearing is not the singular truth,” Rudin said.

Rudin also elaborated on how history is currently taught as well as its function in our society.

“The government has decided to spend [millions of dollars] to teach Canadians about the War of 1812 because they feel we should know about the facts of the upcoming anniversary,” Rudin said, referring to a federal initiative to commemorate the War of 1812 bicentennial. “I don’t see a lot of value in simply knowing facts. We can all look in a book and know facts. The value of history is to realize that it is a story that does not have simple answers.”

All this despite the fact that some do not always see the purpose in history. According to Victoria Sheila, a Concordia finance student, history is “only important if we’re not just being taught the nice parts of it.”

“The challenge,” said Rudin, “is that some students think that history is cut and dry which is not true. I thought history was boring when they wanted me to learn dates and numbers. The challenge is trying to make students understand when they do history, it’s not just lining up the facts, but telling the story.”

Rudin is currently on sabbatical leave finishing his seventh book about the expropriation of Acadians in the mid-18th century.

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Teachers learn from teachers

How should teachers assess the way their students learn? How can they ensure that they are providing meaningful feedback?

These are only a few of the questions answered by the panel of experts featured in the Colloquium on Effective Assessment Practices, held at Concordia last Tuesday.

The event, aimed at improving the way teachers communicate with their students, featured a panel of experts in the fields of teaching and learning who addressed the crowded room of teachers, TAs, and students. They presented examples from their research and experiences, including innovative teaching practices and ideas on inceasing student engagement in the classroom.

“Often, exams don’t test knowledge, they merely test a student’s ability to handle stress,” said panelist Dr. Jennifer Clark, academic director of the faculty of arts and sciences at the University of New England. “By making the implicit explicit, teachers can reduce fear by role-playing, and thus build confidence in the student.”

Clark suggested that teachers themselves perform the tasks they ask of their students, in order to show them the correct processes. As a result, students no longer waste time on worrying about how to do the task, and can actually focus on getting their work done.

Panelist Earle Abrahamson, author, educator, and chair of a multinational teaching fellowship, developed a mentorship system between first-year and final year students. This way, “[students] know what to expect from teachers because they have access to the experiences of their mentors,” he said, “and it helps them know how to succeed.”

Dr. Diane Bateman, assessment specialist and researcher at Champlain College Saint-Lambert, has one-on-one meetings with her students before she submits their final grades.

“They need feedback before submitting their work,” she said, “so that they can build knowledge and work towards a grade.” Her suggestion was met by criticism from a JMSB management professor in the audience, who thought this form of formative assessment would shelter students from the competitiveness of the real world.

Much of the ensuing discussion was in support of Dr. Bateman’s idea that, in fact, it is “the responsibility of the teacher to develop the student, not just let them sink or swim.”

Keynote speaker Dr. Lesley-Jane Eales-Reynolds, director of learning and teaching at the University of Westminster in London, told the audience that “what is important is that we can design assessments that have real meaning and value to a student, which motivate them to succeed and to develop higher order thinking skills.”

In an interview, Eales-Reynolds spoke of the challenges teachers face in preparing their students for real-world problems.

“Getting the assessment right is absolutely key to getting students to engage and be enthusiastic about their learning,” she said. “It can also be a way to help students engage more fully with their subject and get excited about it and get passionate.”

“It’s so rewarding when you see a student’s work, and you suddenly witness “the Aha!” moment, when a student finally gets what it is you’re trying to get across to them – when they finally discover for themselves that really exciting moment,” she added. “And assessment is a really important aspect of that learning experience.”

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How do you feel about the shuttle?

Starting next month, students, faculty, and other university employees will be able to voice their concerns about Concordia’s shuttle bus service through a framework of petitions and surveys created by the Concordia Student Union and the university.

Organized by the CSU and Allégo Concordia, a Sustainable Concordia initiative which promotes sustainable transportation on campus, the survey will run from November until January and will evaluate the level of satisfaction with the shuttle bus that connects the downtown campus to Loyola.

“The shuttle service is one of the most important services in a university that has two campuses and Concordia must be able to evaluate those services in order to change what is not working,” CSU VP Loyola and services Melissa Fuller explained. “This isn’t necessarily transportation services’ fault but we need to work together to find solutions. Students really want things to change and they’re willing to help make that change.”

According to university transportation supervisor Mike Russo, an engineering study was conducted three years ago but user satisfaction with the shuttle service was not taken into consideration. Fuller decided that rather than trying to negotiate with transportation services, she would contact Allégo coordinator Terrence Graham to work on a satisfaction study as part of a larger campus transportation survey to be completed in January.

The study will gather comments and ideas by directly questioning students waiting in the shuttle bus lines.

“There hasn’t been a survey done since 2008 yet students are complaining all the time so there’s a sign that something is wrong,” said Fuller. “We’re trying to find ways to make students feel like they’re being heard. I feel that there’s no communication between transportation services and the students to a point that [transportation services] might not even really know how bad the problem is for students.”

The shuttle buses serve thousands of students and the ride between campuses takes approximately 20 minutes in regular traffic. Buses circulate every 20 to 25 minutes during peak hours but according to many, traffic and the limited space capacity of the four running buses often leave students waiting for more than 40 minutes in the rain and the cold.

“The schedule says the bus comes every 20 minutes and I’ve been standing here for an hour. In the winter it’s just going to get worse,” said mathematics student Bobbie Lee, who takes the shuttle twice every day. “If you had 40 minutes between classes, which would seem like a lot of time [except] the bus doesn’t come at the proper time like it is often the case, you could possibly miss a midterm.”

Bus driver Fernand Groulx has been driving Concordia shuttle buses since the service was created nine years ago.

“Concordia does what it can to give the best possible service,” he said. “But if we could add one or two more buses, at least during peak hours, things could be much better. But of course that depends on the university’s budget. Buses are expensive.”

“I was told a major factor is the cost but unfortunately I don’t know what the cost is because it’s confidential information,” said Fuller, who met with Russo and Desmond O’Neill, manager of distribution, transportation and mail services last spring after winning slate Your Concordia promised to address the shuttle issue, namely the extension of evening hours on Friday, in their election campaign.

CSU representative Irmak Bahar is also preparing a petition demanding immediate and long-term measures be taken to improve the shuttle service and “to help the University create solutions.” The petition will be available for students in the CSU offices and on their website in November.

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ConU welcomes 3,500 visitors at Open House

Concordia University opened its doors on Saturday to thousands of potential students looking to learn more about what the school has to offer.

This year’s open house had a budget of $80,000, with roughly half of that money paying for advertising. Similarly, the university spent $35,000 on advertising last year. University spokesperson Chris Mota said that Concordia sees money spent on Open House “as an investment rather than an expense.”

“Open House brings us potential students, many of whom apply for admission at Concordia. So it is considered money well spent,” Mota said.

Organizers estimate that approximately 3,500 people attended Open House, around the same turnout as last year.

Organizers have yet to find a way to track the number of people coming in and out of both the Sir George Williams and Loyola campuses, said Mota.

“They’ve tried various methods, like [keeping track of] how many programs come back, but not everyone takes a program,” Mota explained. “They’ve tried counting how many giveaway bags come back but, there too, not everyone takes one.“

Both campuses featured presentations and workshops aimed at getting potential students interested in the school. Four 75 minute lectures showcasing each faculty were held throughout the day in the J.W. McConnell Building, while the faculty of arts and sciences held 13 mini lectures giving visitors a taste of what classes will be like. Fine arts held its annual portfolio day for students looking for creative feedback, as well as musical performances and a contemporary dance workshop, while the John Molson School of Business ran info sessions for undergrads and graduates the entire day.

Sophia Wright, a third year contemporary dance student, saw a “steady flow” of people pass through the main floor of the EV building. She also said the contemporary dance workshop drew a large crowd to the seventh floor of the Molson building.

JMSB saw a lot of traffic as well according to Anna Pakkala, one of several students in charge of setting business school hopefuls up on tours of the MB building. “We’ve been booking tours one hour in advance,” she said.

Over at Loyola, which could be reached via a free ride on the shuttle bus, departments set up interactive booths inside the science complex. Communications studies had a massive camera dolly looming over their booth and the department of chemistry and biochemistry offered guests free cups of ice cream made on the spot with liquid nitrogen.

McGill University held their open house on Sunday. UQAM and Université de Montréal will be opening their doors in November.

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BoG cancellation reason ‘vague’: student reps

The cancellation of this Wednesday’s Board of Governors meeting has student representatives searching for a concrete reason, while the administration has remained vague about the decision.

An Oct. 7 email sent to all governors by Danielle Tessier, director of board and senate administration, indicated that the Oct. 20 meeting had been cancelled “due to potential quorum issues.”

The news of the cancellation was only officially communicated to the wider campus community in an Oct. 12 email from Tessier’s assistant Evelyne Loo, who never specified the reason. When asked in a follow-up email from the Concordian, Loo responded that she didn’t know why the meeting had been cancelled, but confirmed that the next regularly scheduled meeting on Nov. 17 would still be taking place.

According to university spokesperson Chris Mota, quorum for BoG meetings is 21, and the board is required to hold a minimum of five meetings during the academic year. She said that it was not unusual for at least one meeting a year to be cancelled.

Unsatisfied with the administration’s official answer, graduate student governor Erik Chevrier inquired further, and on Monday was told by Tessier that it looked like a number of governors couldn’t attend, though she never specified that number. She also reminded Chevrier that there are currently four vacancies on the BoG.

“I found out that the recommendation was made by her to the chair and the Executive committee to cancel the meeting,” said Chevrier. “I also asked her if it was mostly members of certain constituencies that couldn’t make it, but she said that was not relevant to the question of quorum.”

Concordia Student Union president and undergraduate governor Lex Gill, who sits on the Executive committee, wrote in an email that she was not consulted on the decision to cancel the meeting, but indicated that she had been unable to attend the committee’s most recent meeting.

Chevrier is awaiting his chance to present a motion to the BoG to increase transparency at the university’s highest governing body. The motion calls for, among other things, a question and answer period at the end of each BoG meeting, increased seating in the actual BoG meeting room, and permission for media such as CUTV to broadcast meetings live.

There was no time to discuss the motion at the September board meeting, and now due to the Oct. 20 meeting being cancelled, Chevrier’s motion has been pushed even further down the calendar to November.

Chevrier sent a tweaked version of the motion on Monday to the BoG’s Executive committee in the hopes of having discussion on the updated version added to the November meeting’s agenda. The modified motion was unanimously adopted at the Graduate Students’ Association Oct. 14 council meeting.

The new motion quotes several key passages from the external governance review committee’s report, a document that the Board of Governors has said it is committed to respecting. New items in the motion include calling on the board to follow the EGRC’s recommendation to place closed sessions at the end of the meeting. The closed session was held at the beginning of the Sept. 28 meeting, lasting for about 20 minutes.

The now cancelled Oct. 20 meeting was set to be the first BoG meeting to take place since undergraduate student representation on the board was voted to be decreased from four to one. That particular vote sparked outrage among students during the heated Sept. 28 meeting, where 27 governors voted through a secret ballot in support of diminishing the number of student governors.

Undergraduate governor AJ West wrote in an email on Monday that despite requests made by all four undergraduate representatives, none have yet to receive a clear answer as to why it was seen as reasonable for successive governance committees to recommend shrinking student representation on the BoG.

“Moving forward, we plan to formally request an explanation as to why some factions on the Board were weighed more when choosing the numbers,” he wrote. “We don’t need another lecture about how everyone is losing representation — they’re ignoring the question, which continues to be, ‘Why are we losing proportional representation?’”
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Quebec receives a chunk of Canadian research grants

Senator Larry Smith was on hand Wednesday at Concordia University to announce that Quebec universities will receive 50 research grants from the federal governmment.
Senator Larry Smith was on hand Wednesday at Concordia University to announce that Quebec universities will receive 50 research grants from the federal governmment. Photo by writer

Quebec universities are the recipients of 50 new Canada Research Chairs, a sizable chunk of the 253 federally-sponsored research grants awarded across the country. The total cost of the funding is just under $204 million, of which Quebec will get 30 per cent.

Concordia University played host to the announcement on Oct. 12, with Conservative senator and former Alouettes president Larry Smith and Chad Gaffield, chair of the CRC program steering committee, speaking on the 11th floor of the EV building.

“Over the past 11 years, the Canada Research Chair program has become a cornerstone of national strategy to make Canada one of the world’s top countries in research and development. It has given an incredible boost to researchers at every part of this country,” said Concordia president Frederick Lowy.

Concordia was awarded seven CRCs, with McGill winning 24, Université de Montréal receiving 12, Université du Québec à Montréal receiving six, and École Polytechnique receiving one.

After researchers are nominated, experts from around the world consider each one.

The new CRCs at Concordia cover a variety of research topics, running the gamut from investigating how players react to video games, to creating new tools to treat cancer, to better understanding the autism spectrum.

One of the CRCs awarded to Concordia went to Zachary Patterson, a professor in the geography and planning department. His focus is on how transportation can shape how we use land.

“We’re pretty conscious of the important relationships between transportation and land use, how transportation structures land use, and there are many different levels to that in terms of sustainability,” he said after the announcement.

Patterson and his students are also examining the relationship of the implementation of metros, and the gentrification of neighbourhoods.

Marta Cerruti, an engineering researcher at McGill, received the CRC in bio-synthetic interfaces. Her research will hopefully lead to a better way for implants to interact with peoples’ bodies. It could benefit people with tumours or bone fractures, she said.

“Scaffolds are implants that can be used to seed and house cells. And then the idea of the scaffolds is that we modify the surface of this material so that they can speak the same language of the body,” explained Cerruti after the announcement.

“And then the idea is that this kind of interactive interface makes the body regenerate itself, and finally, hopefully, once this has happened, the material will degrade.”

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Concordia hopes PERFORM Centre will put university on the health and fitness map

Students can access equipment at Le Centre with a $45/semester gym membership.
Students can access equipment at Le Centre with a $45/semester gym membership. Photo by Navneet Pall

Ambitious plans regarding the PERFORM Centre were the topics at hand at a presentation held Oct. 5 in an attempt to raise university awareness on the newly-built facility.

Nearly 40 people attended the most recent “Open to Question” session on the Loyola campus, most of them PERFORM staff and members of the departments of athletics and exercise science. Dr. Kevin Little, the chief administrative officer of PERFORM (which stands for Prevention, Evaluation, Rehabilitation and FORMation), spoke in detail about the centre and took questions from the audience.

“The vast majority of our health care costs as a society go to things that we know are preventable,” said Little, who has a PhD from McGill in experimental medicine. He explained that their vision is to see the centre become a world leader in research education and community engagement for improved health, foreseeing potential collaboration with groups all over the globe.

Construction started on the PERFORM Centre in the fall of 2009 and officially finished as of last Friday. The federal and provincial governments contributed $35 million to the project via the Knowledge Infrastructure Program to build and furnish the facility with what Little describes as “a tremendous battery of equipment.”
Located just next to the football field at Loyola, the PERFORM Centre is part gym, part research facility and is open to the public.

“The focus [is] really not so much on diagnosis and treatment but really on this ability to functionally assess,” said Little, emphasizing that the centre does not have doctors on staff.

Instead, Little said that PERFORM will aim to “better inform people of ways they can take charge of their own health” by assessing an individual’s health, implementing a recovery program and then re-evaluating the person afterwards to see the results.

Despite being open to all, the audience at the session had a marked lack of students. “The Open to Question sessions have not attracted students despite our promotional efforts to reach out to students,” said Karen McCarthy, Concordia’s director of internal communications.

Little said that it will take a few months to establish all the standard operational procedures, protocols and regulations required before any research can actually take place.

“Watch this space because I think in a few months you will see a lot of things come into focus at PERFORM,” he said.

Christian Durand, communications advisor for the PERFORM Centre, confirmed that a ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for Nov. 4 and will include tours of the facilities.

A second Open to Question session about the centre takes place Wednesday, Oct. 12 from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in room H-763.

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