Board of Governors and Senate highlights: December 2024

Chair Helen Antoniou opened the December 12 Board of Governors meeting by thanking Jonathan Wener, who ends his second term as chancellor at the end of the month. Antoniou highlighted Wener’s outstanding contributions to the university over the years, including as Board member for 17 years. Antoniou also welcomed the incoming chancellor, Gina Cody.

At both this meeting and the Senate meeting on December 13, President Graham Carr added to his written report by speaking on a few topics.

Recent incidents on campus

• Carr mentioned that the university started publishing this fall incident summaries that provide a factual account of disruptive incidents. These are meant to counter misinformation that has been circulating through various channels, including social media.
• He summarized for the Board, as he had at Senate last month, events that occurred on campus on October 31 and spoke at both meetings about the student strikes of November 21-22 and a confrontation between two student groups on December 3.
• The president also condemned the antisemitic gesture and hate speech a demonstrator directed toward a group of counter protesters on the corner of Mackay and De Maisonneuve streets.
• Carr said that while these events are exceptions, they are taking a toll on institutional morale. They sometimes appear to be deliberate efforts to force an intervention or to hurt the reputation of the university. The Concordia community is increasingly fed up by acts of provocation and intimidation, by having the university targeted by campaigns on social media and by the amount of time, energy and expenses needed to try to prevent and respond to these types of actions. He also denounced the marked increase in personal attacks directed at members of the university, which have no place in our community, he said.
• To senators, he mentioned that the work of the STRIVE task force continues, reiterating the call to community members to come forward and contribute their experience.
• In response to a senator who asked about the recent hiring of the security firm Perceptage International, the president said that the firm was based and licensed in Quebec and that security firms go through an approval process by the Quebec government.

Bill 74

• Another topic of concern addressed at both meetings is the adoption on December 6 of Bill 74, the Loi visant principalement à améliorer l’encadrement relatif aux étudiants étrangers. This new law gives the Minister of Immigration new powers to set quotas on student visas and limit the number of international students in Quebec.
• Universities have not yet been told on which criteria the quotas will be based, but language could be one of them.
• The law was adopted despite the higher education sector having unanimously condemned it. University presidents spoke at the commission parlementaire hearings on the bill last month (including Carr on November 5), asking that universities be exempted from the law.
• Carr added that the combination of federal and provincial legislation around international students has devastated the international student market for Canada.
• Concordia is aiming to recruit 1,000 more students for 2025-2026 but the focus will have to be on Quebec and Canadian students.

Carr also presented on a couple of recent achievements

• Concordia’s District 3 celebrated its 10^th anniversary earlier this month. The innovation hub has grown into a vital part of Quebec’s startup ecosystem, helping launch more than 1,200 companies across industries like technology, health and sustainability. 
• Concordia achieved its highest-ever ranking in Canada’s Top 50 Research Universities rankings by Research Infosource. Concordia placed 1^st in Quebec and 5^th in Canada among comprehensive universities. Since 2014, Concordia has tripled its research income and has moved up in the overall ranking from 34^th to 21^st place. Carr said these results are a remarkable testament to the work of our faculty, staff, graduate and postdoctoral students and of how Concordia continues to emerge as a dynamic research university.
• At the Senate meeting, Provost Anne Whitelaw added to her written report by congratulating Anne-Marie Croteau, dean of the John Molson School of Business, on receiving the King Charles III Coronation Medal. Croteau was recognized for her contribution to promoting diversity and excellence in education.

DISC regulation changes

• Senate approved the recommendation of the Academic Programs Committee to reinstate the DISC deadline (the date by which students can drop a course without academic consequences) but making it the ninth week of term instead of the eighth, as the regulation currently states. The DISC deadline had temporarily been moved to the last day of classes since the start of the pandemic.
• To help students make an informed decision, the revised regulation will require that instructors provide 20% of formative feedback five days prior to the DISC deadline.
• New and revised academic programs:
• Senate approved the Microprogram in Innovation Mindset, a new 9-credit undergraduate program proposed by the Faculty of Arts and Science. The program consists of learning about models, concepts, methods and strategies for innovation. It will provide innovation tools and skills for students who have different backgrounds, without being focused on a specific area of knowledge.
• Two new Teacher Certification Graduate Diploma programs were also approved: Preschool and Elementary Teaching and Teaching English as a Second Language. The two programs were initially two streams of the Teacher Certification Graduate Diploma approved in May 2024. The split into two separate programs follows a review by the Ministère de l’Éducation.

The meeting concluded with Senate members breaking into discussion groups to discuss the next iteration of the university’s Strategic Directions.