Tag: concordia

Categories
News

ConU in review

Both Concordia University and the Concordia Student Union had an eventful 2010-2011 school year. Notably, a spate of resignations afflicted both bodies, leaving a student body and a community concerned and hesitant about the future of their school. Students manifested their concerns by staging protests and sit-ins, and by voting for Your Concordia, a slate that ran for the CSU on the grounds of public consultation on touchy issues such as a student centre. The Concordia community called for a governance review – a call heeded by the university.

Wednesday, Sept. 8:  Concordia VP advancement and alumni relations Kathy Assayag steps down for “personal reasons.”

Wednesday, Sept. 29: Following in colleague Assayag’s footsteps, Concordia VP services and one-time acting president Michael Di Grappa leaves the university to join McGill’s administration as vice-principal (administration and finance).

Thursday, Nov. 25: Students vote down a proposed fee levy increase. The referendum question polled students on their feelings towards increasing the amount currently being collected per credit for an envisioned student centre from $2 to $4.50. The students’ response is overwhelming: No, thank you.

Wednesday, Dec. 22: Concordia president Judith Woodsworth resigns. She too cites “personal reasons” for stepping down, although it is soon revealed that she was ousted by the Board of Governors. Woodsworth collects two years’ salary as severance pay, or $703,500.

Tuesday, Jan. 4:  CSU VP finance Zhuo Ling announces his resignation, stating he is unable to fulfill the time commitment necessary for the position. VP clubs and outreach Ramy Khoriaty takes over the position for the remainder of the semester.

Friday, Jan. 21: Former Concordia rector Frederick Lowy officially takes office as interim president. Lowy’s previous stint as head of the university spanned ten years, from 1995 to 2005.

February: CSU president Heather Lucas confirms the union’s interest in the Faubourg Ste-Catherine building with the university, calling it the “most realistic” and “most affordable” option for a student centre.

Friday, March 4:  Concordia Student Union VP sustainability and promotions Morgan Pudwell hands in her three-page letter of resignation. In the letter, Pudwell cites concerns over potential financial mismanagement and governance, disagreement with the executive’s decision to back a student centre at the Faubourg, and a lack of trust within the executive team.

Monday, March 14: The CSU elections for the 2011-2012 school year kick off on what is commonly known as poster night (or “that night where everyone runs around with large sheets of paper and sticks them to walls.”) Two slates face off: Your Concordia and Action.

Thursday, March 17: In the provincial budget, Quebec finance minister Raymond Bachand outlines plans to raise tuition fees by $325 a year for five years as of Sept. 2012. The hike brings the cost of a university education for a Quebec student to $3,793 per year.

Friday, March 18: The university announces the appointments of the three members of the external governance review committee. Bernard Shapiro, André C. Côté and Glen A. Jones are named to the committee and are each paid $1,000 a day for their work, for a maximum of $20,000 per committee member.

Friday, April 1: The results of the CSU election are announced: Your Concordia, headed by Lex Gill, pull out ahead with a 336-vote margin of victory.

Wednesday, April 6: Concordia University announces its plans to gradually phase out bottled water on campus. Over a three-year period, water fountains will be upgraded and replaced when necessary. That first step has a $100,000 price tag.

Tuesday, April 12: Both Action and Your Concordia are disqualified in an after-the-fact decision by chief electoral officer Oliver Cohen. Cohen alleges numerous examples of improper conduct on the part of members of each team, including campaigning during the polling period and using club resources to campaign.

Wednesday, April 27: After a long and heated hearing, the CSU judicial board rules to reinstate Your Concordia as the winning slate, and to uphold the disqualification of Action. The slate was later reinstated by the CSU council.

Wednesday, June 15: The external governance review committee releases its 39-page report, in which the three members of the committee point out a number of flaws in the university’s structure. They detail 38 recommendations to the university in order to ameliorate what it calls a “culture of contempt.”

Wednesday, Aug. 31: In a press release and mass email to students, the Board of Governors announces its intention to implement the recommendations of the external governance review committee which pertain to the board.

Categories
News

“Your Montreal” orientation in the works for Concordia

Montreal music mainstays Lunice and hip-hop collective Nomadic Massive are two of the 12 different artists slated to animate the two weeks of fun and mayhem commonly referred to as orientation at Concordia University.

This year’s orientation, comprised of 17 different events over the course of two weeks, will unfold from Sept. 6 to 18. The theme, “Your Montreal,” is a spin-off of the current executive’s slate name “Your Concordia.” According to Laura Glover, VP student life and sustainability, the idea behind it was to “really focus on orienting students to both Concordia and the city of Montreal.”
The CSU sought and booked Montreal artists from a variety of genres, hence Lunice and Nomadic Massive’s inclusion in the final Sept. 15 concert set list.
While both Glover and CSU president Lex Gill declined to reveal the big ticket names for the final concert, Gill did confirm the CSU has been in talks with several Canadian bands and have pending contracts for both the headline and the second headliner, which were not finalized as of press time.
According to Gill, the CSU is in the process of verifying the acts’ Canadian residency. The step is necessary to ensure that the union could maintain their tax-exempt status by ensuring they are not remitting taxes for the bands, explained Gill.
Like last year’s concert, which featured performances from Somali-Canadian hip-hop artist K’naan, Montreal-based Chromeo and Toronto act Keys’n’Krates, the show will be held at the Quad on Concordia’s Loyola campus. For years, the orientation concert was effectively a block party held on Mackay Street near the downtown campus. A noise complaint moved the last fall orientation concert to the Quad, which is private property with no noise restrictions.
“It’s a beautiful space and I think that the concert went really well last year. There was no question it was definitely going to be the Quad all along,” Glover commented.
The predicted expense for Orientation this year is $150,000, less than the $195,000 budgeted for last year’s orientation and well under last year’s final tally of $252,852. Gill added the total cost of the Sept. 15 concert will be slightly over the price tag for K’naan’s performance alone.
“We’ve found that there are many diverse amazing artists that are well known within not only the Montreal community but also nationally recognized and it has fit within our budget,” Glover said.
In partnership with Sustainable Concordia, the CSU’s goal is to produce as little waste as possible during orientation.
“It’s difficult to evaluate the amount of waste that has been caused in the past,” Glover admitted. “I can say though that the process of planning orientation has seriously taken into consideration of logistics of planning low waste […] for example, ensuring that the food that we’re supplying can be handheld food rather than serving food that requires a plate, making sure that mugs are available, reusable plates, etc.”
The second edition of the Sustainable Food Festival will also be featured during Orientation. “[The festival] focuses on hosting local vendors, local restaurants, and local farmers,” Glover explained. 

Look for more Orientation updates both online at www.theconcordian.com and in coming issues of the Concordian.

 

Confirmed Orientation events: 

Tuesday, Sept. 6 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m..: CSU Welcome Meet & Greet
Wednesday, Sept. 7 from 10:00 a.m.: Faculty Association Day at Loyola Quad (ASFA, FASA, ECA, CASA)
Wednesday, Sept. 7 from 10:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m..: Throwies’ Game
Wednesday, Sept. 7 from 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. : Techno Multimedia/Concert
Thursday, Sept. 8 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.: Keynote speakers Ilona Dougherty and Lou Piensa
Friday, Sept. 9 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m..: Clubs fair and The Many Tastes of Concordia
Wednesday, Sept. 14 from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.: Photo Scavenger Hunt
Thursday, Sept. 15 at the Loyola Quad: Final concert featuring Nomadic Massive, Lunice
Friday, Sept. 16 from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. “IEAC and CISA Athletics Tournament”

 

Categories
News

Action on governance report could come in September

Concordia’s governance troubles could be on the mend as early as this September, depending if the university’s governing bodies adopt a set of recommendations stemming from an external review.
The 39-page report from the external governance review committee, released in June, outlined 38 recommendations that could eventually lead to ending what the committee members described as a “culture of contempt” at Concordia.
Formed in February, the committee was the product of a joint agreement between Concordia’s Senate and Board of Governors. It saw the light of day in the direct aftermath of the ousting of former president Judith Woodsworth in December by the BoG.
Woodsworth was sent on her way with a $705,000 severance package. The entire scenario was described by the external review committee as an event that “revealed a substantial degree of misunderstanding, blatantly deficient internal communications and a lot of distrust, often bordering mutual contempt, between the various communities of the University.”
Eight months after the flaws in Concordia’s governance structure began to expose themselves, the BoG’s ad hoc committee on governance is preparing to present its report on the ERCG’s recommendations to the full Board at the end of September. Whether the ad hoc committee, or the full board for that matter, will endorse some or all of the ERCG’s recommendations remains to be seen.
“At the open meeting held in June about the external review committee’s report, the chair of the board’s ad hoc committee, Maitre Rita DeSantis, indicated that the ad hoc committee would be studying the report very closely with the intention of moving very quickly,” said Concordia spokesperson Chris Mota. “There were some concerns that this report would be just be sitting on a shelf, but it will be dealt with as quickly as possible.”
The BoG’s ad hoc committee met four times over the summer to discuss the ERCG’s report, said Mota. Apart from DeSantis, the ad hoc committee’s nine members include BoG chair Peter Kruyt, Concordia interim president Fred Lowy, representatives from full-time faculty, part-time faculty, and staff, and one student representative, former CSU president Amine Dabchy.
Mota indicated that the Senate’s steering committee also met twice over the summer, and will discuss the ERCG’s report at Senate’s first meeting of the year in early September.
The ERCG’s report recommended a major overhaul of the Board of Governors, Senate, and the Office of the president. Among other items, it recommended reducing the BoG from 42 seats to 25, which would incude 15 external members and 10 internal members.
Among the internal members, the ERCG recommended that there be two student representatives, down from the five currently in place – four undergrads and one grad student. This is the main recommendation that has Concordia Student Union president and BoG representative Lex Gill concerned.
“If the recommendation is accepted, it would reduce undergrad representation on the BoG to four per cent. That’s unacceptable,” said Gill.
Gill said she still remained generally satisfied with the report’s recommendations, particularly those empowering the office of the president. The report also called on Senate to assert itself as the supreme governing body on academic affairs at Concordia, indicating that the governing body’s priority for the time being should be to adopt an academic plan.
The EGRC’s three members, Bernard Shapiro, André C. Côté, and Glen A. Jones, stood to make $1,000 a day for their work for a maximum of 20 days, thereby costing Concordia $60,000 in remuneration alone. According to an email sent earlier this summer from Concordia spokeswoman Fiona Downey, the final cost incurred by the university for the EGRC’s work came closer to $78,000, mostly due to hotel fees paid for the two members from out of town.
Exit mobile version