Board endorses creation of Concordia University Press
At the final Board of Governors meeting on June 21, Chair Norman Hébert, Jr., began by extending his thanks to all members for their hard work as volunteers throughout an exceptionally busy and interesting year.
He thanked outgoing members professor Shimon Amir, Concordia Student Union (CSU) General Coordinator Terry Wilkings and CSU alternate Ben Prunty for their service on the Board.
The Board approved two appointments for terms beginning July 1, 2016: Rahul Kumar, representing the Graduate Students’ Association for one year; and Sandra Betton who was reappointed for three years, representing the full-time faculty members from the John Molson School of Business.
President’s Report
Concordia’s president Alan Shepard thanked Board members for attending convocation ceremonies held in early June. He noted that more than 5,700 students graduated and of those, almost 3,500 crossed the stage in eight ceremonies, at which nine outstanding individuals received honorary doctorates.
He also spoke about his participation at the annual Conférence de Montréal, organized by the International Economic Forum of the Americas in mid-June. Shepard moderated a panel of experts on the future of online learning in higher education and gave thank-you remarks after a keynote speech delivered by Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s director general.
Shepard highlighted the confirmation of Julie Chu as head coach of the Stingers women’s hockey team. Chu has won four Olympic medals and five World Championships as part of the U.S. national team. In addition to coaching the Stingers, Chu continues to play professionally for the Montreal Canadiennes.
Two alumni have been recognized with a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts: Suzy Lake, MFA 83, and Bill Vazan, FA 70. Lake also won the Scotiabank Photography Award for 2016.
Five Montreal incubators joined forces on June 9 to welcome 200 guests to Demonstration Day at Concordia’s District 3. The following week, Montreal was named Intelligent Community of the Year by the New York-based think tank Intelligent Community Forum. Board member Gabriel Bran Lopez suggested events such as Demonstration Day surely contributed to the city’s growing reputation as an innovation hub.
Minor amendments to the Code of Ethics and Safe Disclosure Policy approved
The Board approved minor modifications to section 8 with respect to the disclosure mechanism under the Code of Ethics and Safe Disclosure Policy Applicable to Employees of Concordia University (BD-4). These modifications will reinforce the confidentiality of existing mechanisms for safe disclosure.
Board endorses creation of Concordia University Press
At the Board meeting of May 30, University Librarian Guylaine Beaudry made a presentation on the creation of Concordia University Press, a sustainable, not-for-profit, open-access scholarly publishing organization. She also delivered the same presentation to the President’s Executive Group, Senate Library Committee, University Research Committee, Academic Programs and Planning Committee, and Senate.
In the spirit of transparency, the Board was asked to approve a motion to endorse the establishment of Concordia University Press, which was passed. Concordia University Press will build on the university’s leadership in open access and will produce digital books available in EPUB format, as well as a few printed editions. The official launch and first call for manuscripts are slated for this fall.
Increases in per-credit tuition fees for international students approved
Since September 2014, tuition fees for international students in certain programs are no longer regulated by the Government of Quebec. As a result, undergraduate students in the John Molson School of Business (JMSB) and the Engineering and Computer Science Cycle I programs and graduate international students in JMSB Cycle II programs are charged a single per-credit rate.
The Board approved the following fee increases, all effective in the fall 2016 and in line with guidelines issued by the Ministère de l’éducation et de l’enseignment supérieur (MEES): 1.5 per cent increase for undergraduate international students in Engineering and Computer Science Cycle I programs, and for graduate international students in JMSB Cycle I programs, which means these students will be charged a fixed rate of $656.21 per credit and $717.69, respectively.
Per-credit fees that are charged to graduate international students in JMSB Cycle II programs have four components: base tuition, base forfaitaire, an additional 10 per cent forfaitaire and premium, the latter being the only component which Concordia may increase without following the percentage set by MEES.
The Board approved an increase of 1.5 per cent in the total per-credit fee charged to these students, in line with the MEES guidelines, for each of the four components as outlined above.
Increases in administrative and technology infrastructure fees approved
The Board approved a 1.5 per cent increase in the university administrative fee, which applies to all students, from $9.84 to $9.99 per credit. A fee increase of 1.5 per cent for the technology infrastructure fee, also applied to all students was approved, increasing to $4.79 per credit from $4.72 per credit.