Senate receives annual report from the Office of Rights and Responsibilities

President’s remarks

In his remarks to Senate at its meeting on January 15, Concordia’s president Alan Shepard mourned the recent loss of two long-time faculty members, the Liberal Arts College’s Virginia Nixon and Engineering and Computer Science’s Hugh McQueen.

Nixon, who taught the history of art and music part-time from 1985 to 2014, was recognized as one of the college’s outstanding teachers and scholars. McQueen, who published nearly 500 publications in metallurgy, helped launch Concordia’s first graduate engineering program in the early 1970s.

Shepard saluted Benoit-Antoine Bacon, provost and vice-president of Academic Affairs, for his service. After nearly three years at his alma mater, Bacon is leaving to become VP Academic at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario this summer. He thanked Bacon for his important contributions to Concordia and wished him the best. The search for a new provost is under way with intention of having a new provost in place by August.

Shepard’s first term ends on July 31, 2017 and he confirmed at Senate that he is seeking a second term. When a president seeks renewal of his or her term at Concordia, the university’s Board of Governors establishes the President Evaluation Committee.

This 12-member committee conducts a review and makes a recommendation as to whether the president’s performance warrants a second term. Members of the committee include external members of the Board, faculty, staff and students.

The president noted two recent achievements by faculty: John Capobianco was welcomed as a fellow into the Royal Society of Chemistry and long-time Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema instructor Martin Duckworth received the $30,000 Prix Albert-Tessier in recognition of his outstanding career in cinema.

Shepard also mentioned that Patti Sonntag, managing editor at the New York Times, will be the university’s first journalist in residence. Sonntag is leading an independent study this term designed to build students' investigative and data journalism skills.

Finally, Shepard congratulated and thanked all the volunteer organizers and 270 volunteer judges at this year’s John Molson School of Business (JMSB) International Case Competition. The oldest and largest competition of its kind, JMSB hosted 36 teams from 20 countries from January 3 to 8. The team from Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany, won the competition. 

Provost’s Academic Update

Bacon announced the renewal of the Concordia Undergraduate Student Research Awards, which provide undergraduate students with experience in research, participatory research, or research-creation work.

The program also covers top-ups for all National Sciences and Engineering Research Council Undergraduate Student Research Awards. Bacon said the program will disburse 75 awards this summer compared to 50 when first offered four years ago.

He also highlighted the upcoming fourth annual Teaching and Learning Winterfest. The nine workshops, which will run on Fridays from January 22 to February 12, focus on the values that defining good teaching, as determined by focus groups comprising faculty, staff and students last fall.

Office of Rights and Responsibilities annual report

In an annual update on the Office of Rights and Responsibilities (ORR), VP of Advancement and External Relations Bram Freedman, reported on behalf of director and senior advisor on Rights and Responsibilities Louise Schiller. He began by noting that Concordia remains the only Quebec university whose Code of Rights and Responsibilities applies to all community members — students, faculty and staff.

Out of 319 total requests for assistance in 2014-15, 144 became cases, and only 31 eventually became formal complaints. These numbers are comparable to recent years, he said.

Freedman explained that with the current review of the university’s sexual assault procedures and policies, being overseen by Lisa Ostiguy, deputy provost, and to be completed in 2016, sexual assaults will no longer be reported under the "sexual harassment" category. They will be reported separately as sexual assaults. Statistics will also be newly broken down by gender of the complainant.

Strategic Directions Update

Shepard provided an update on the progress of Concordia’s Strategic Directions initiative. He reminded senators that the overarching questions guiding the current planning process, as part of Phase 2, are “How do we design the next-generation university?", "How can we pay for it?” and “What individual actions by Concordia’s units will that involve?”

Shepard said the faculties, libraries and other sectors will be completing their plans, which will include revised strategic priorities, this spring. As well, work will be completed on four cross-institutional strategies: Double our research; Teach for tomorrow; Grow smartly; and Embrace the city, embrace the world.

Register for the Winterfest Teaching Values workshops.