Board of Governors and Senate notes: April 2022

Senate told about growing on-campus activity

Concordia President Graham Carr welcomed members of the Senate to its virtual meeting on the April 8.

Carr addressed an error regarding the updated Board bylaws made at the March 2022 Board of Governor’s meeting. It was understood that Senate abolished the Senate Finance Committee in 2019 but it actually only suspended the committee. The issue will be resolved at the next Senate meeting in May and then brought to the Board.

On other news not in Carr’s report:

• As this was the last meeting of the winter term, Carr thanked the members for their efforts under the shadow of the pandemic, and wished students best of luck for their finals, papers, etc.
• Concordia will continue to follow the same health protocols for classrooms and labs until the end of the term; more on-campus activities are on the way
• Recent on-campus or hybrid events included Jurist-in-Residence Morton Minc in conversation with Sophie Brochu, CEO and president of Hydro Québec; and an acknowledgement for the President’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism at 4^TH SPACE
• Carr reminded Senate that the Moyra Davey exhibition at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery was ending April 9
• The engineering students’ Capstone projects and an event for the Society for Automotive Engineering was being held in the EV Atrium for the first time in two years
• Plans for the summer 2022 term will be announced soon
• Enrolment was up and was particularly strong for grad students; undergrad enrolment is softer in part because fewer students are coming out of CEGEPs, where recruitment efforts will continue
• Concordia continues to look at ways to help Ukrainian students and academics who may want to attend the university
• Astrid Aguy and Jonathan Dessalines were among the top 10 finalists in the Délie ta langue! francophone public-speaking competition, the first representatives from an anglophone institution; Carr thanked coordinator Chanel Bourdon in the Département d’études francaises
• Concordia was granted accreditation as an observer of the governing body of the UN Environment Assembly; as a result, the university will be invited to the assembly’s public meetings and sessions
• Carr congratulated the Stingers women’s hockey team for its provincial and Canadian championship victories, the team’s first national title since 1999; he pointed out that women’s hockey team has the highest academic performance of any of the university’s sports teams
• The Government of Quebec introduced Le projet de loi 32 on academic freedom on April 6, contrary to recommendations by all Quebec universities

Anne Whitelaw, provost and vice-president, academic, did not add to her report but mentioned that artist Moyra Davey won a Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts for lifetime achievement in March.

Effrosyni Diamantoudi, professor of economics, explained the upcoming graduate billing reform for course-based master’s programs. The changes will bring Concordia’s practices in line with other Quebec universities’ and only will affect the billing schedule, not the price. It will have an overall positive impact on students and administration.

Board learns of Concordia’s top-10 placement as tech-talent producer

The Board of Governors held a hybrid in-person and virtual meeting on April 14. Chair Helen Antoniou said it was great to be at the Board’s on-campus gathering, the first since March 2020. She congratulated the Canadian champion Stingers women’s hockey team.

As he did for Senate, Graham Carr reported to the Board on the correction needed for its bylaws regarding the Senate Finance Committee, which will be addressed at the next meeting. He echoed Antoniou’s excitement at meeting in person.

In addition to what he reported to Senate:

• The Barry Lorenzetti Centre for Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership opening event and the Concordia Engagement Awards both recently took place on campus
• The summer term will start in May; all classes will be in person except those from eConcordia and for professors who can’t be on campus for health reasons
• Convocation will also be in person; the honorary doctorate recipients will be announced soon
• The government informed Concordia that it will compensate Quebec universities for the costs associated with the growth of enrolments due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020-21 budget year; as a result, instead of a budget deficit of $20 million, Concordia will show a budget surplus of about $2 million for 2020-21
• The national champion women’s hockey team members were invited to a Canadiens game at the Bell Centre and received a shoutout from the announcer
• Sage Duquette became the first Concordia student to win a McCall MacBain Scholarship, the most lucrative Canadian scholarship; Carr believes that Duquette, Schwarzman Scholar Aiden Cyr and Rhodes Scholar Sabine Plummer make Concordia the only Canadian university this year to win the “triple crown of high-achieving awards”; he congratulated the students and praised Laura Mitchell, executive director of student experience, for helping make it happen
• LinkedIn recently published its analysis of how well Canada is attracting tech talent and the growth of the tech sector; the article named the top-10 universities for producing tech talent; Concordia placed number four, the only Quebec school on the list, behind only Waterloo, UBC and U of T

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