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March 13th, 2012
Read by: Aisha Samu
Stories by: Nikita Smith, Aisha Samu, Tara Brockwell, Niki Mohrdar and Jordie Yeager
Produced by: Carlo Spiridigliozzi
Performance indicators, recordings, and other issues at the Board of Governors meeting
A number of issues were discussed at the Concordia Board of Governors meeting Monday.
Concern over the use of the Concordia brand by student groups was brought to light by two governors.
President Lowy proposed a special committee for the purpose of evaluating performance indicators. However, one professor at the meeting mentioned that for staff, the topic is a “huge issue of contention” and questioned its purpose.
An amendment passed to allow the president to sit on the performance indicators committee. Undergraduate representative Laura Beach will also sit at the committee.
A motion to table a broadcasting vote passed amid concerns over the lack of details on the subject. The vote would see recordings of Board of Governors meetings banned.
CSU President Lex Gill proposed to table the issue until the Senate, who is running the committee on the issue, publishes their findings. A governor at the meeting questioned how a ban of this nature would be enforced.
The recent $2 million dollar fine issued to Concordia by the Education Minister over the handling of severance packages to top administrators was also discussed.
Remarking how much the issue has hurt Concordia’s reputation, chair of the Board of Governors Peter Kruyt admitted that “no one feels this money was well spent.”
McGill's arts undergraduates to vote on strike today
McGill University’s arts undergraduates will be voting yes or no to an unlimited general student strike today.
The faculty representing around six thousand students will be deciding whether or not to join the one hundred and seventy thousand students in Quebec already mandated to strike.
The McGill Daily which is one of the university’s independent student newspapers supports the bid. Its editors say this is the university’s chance to break its tradition of apathy within Quebec’s larger student movements. McGill students have never gone on an unlimited general strike before.
Students are protesting against tuition rates increasing by seventy five per cent in the next five years.
Flickr photo: Ochinko
A Better Concordia: Shocked "Concordia student politics have sunken to a new low"
In a statement to fellow Concordians, A Better Concordia addressed the release of candidates Schubert Laforest and Lucia Gallardo's student records.
Both candidates were disqualified from the upcoming CSU election for allegedly not being registered students.
An investigation is being held to discover the origin of the documents.
Calling the records "outdated, inaccurate versions" and the release an "illegal breach of privacy", A Better Concordia states that the leak came from a Faculty or Department member. The statement continues to say that A Better Concordia is "dismayed at the possibility that a faculty or department member may have abused his or her power to interfere with student elections."
A Better Concordia ended the statement promising to continue their campaign and fight for the protection of rights of Concordia students, adding that the incident has gone beyond the election, and is now about "our collective right to privacy and security within our own university."
Conservative party's Bill C-10 passes
The House of Commons voted yesterday to pass the Conservative party’s new crime bill, called Bill C-10, after three hours of debate.
According to CBC, the vote was originally scheduled for last Wednesday, but the NDP postponed the final debate until Friday.
According to CBC, NDP MP Jack Harris spoke against the bill, saying that he doesn’t think it will deter criminals and that it could actually cause an increase in crimes.
Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae seemed to share Harris’s opinion, calling the bill “a step backwards.”
According to CBC, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson is disappointed by the opposition the bill faces.
Once it becomes law, its measures will be implemented gradually.
Flickr: mvplante
Student strike persists
According to CBC, a student sit-in protest at l’Université à Montréal on Sainte-Catherine turned into an overnight event on Monday.
Students began to bring out chairs from the university and played music and made art.
These students were mostly from UQAM and CÉGEP Vieux-Montréal.
The strike began in the morning and blocked off traffic at the intersection of Sainte Chatherine and Sanguinet.
Protests in Quebec City at l’Université Laval lead to an arrest after access to the education building and many administrative offices were blocked.
At Université du Québec à Montréal, administrators locked four buildings in order to prevent students from occupying the buildings.
Roughly 130, 000 college and university students are now on strike due to upcoming tuition hikes.
Flickr photo: AESS
March 12th 2012
Produced By Melissa Mulligan
Read By Sarah Deshaies
Articles By Sarah Deshaies, Joel Balsam and Melissa Mulligan
Canadians file class action lawsuit against tobacco companies
A group of Canadian smokers have filed a class action lawsuit against Canada's three largest tobacco companies.
Concordia fined $2 million
Concordia University is being penalized by Quebec's Education Ministry for excessive spending on severance packages for top administrators.
In a letter dated yesterday to the chair of Concordia's Board of Directors and obtained by CJAD News, Education Minister Line Beauchamp says she is fining Concordia $2 million, that'll come out of the school's funding.
According to the minister, the university spent just over $3 million in packages for six administrators who were fired in 2009 and 2010. The information was made public late last week by the school's administration, which also announced it would hire outside auditors to review the packages.
The education minister's letter says the school was warned a year ago, and the straw that apparently broke the camel's back was the recent hiring of former president Judith Woodsworth as a teacher after she was dismissed.
Upon leaving, Woodsworth received a package totaling $703,000.
In the letter, Beauchamp says that over a year ago, she told Concordia she was concerned about the way the university was managing top administrators and that the excessive sums of money spent on their departures was feeding citizens' concerns about the judicious use of public funds by universities.
The minister cites the Woodsworth example and describes some of Concordia's management decisions as inappropriate.
Student union president Lex Gill says it's too little, too late.
"I think the government has stepped in too late on this issue. We know that the issue of mismanagement at Quebec's universities is absolutely out of control and it's systemic," Gill says.
"This is an absurdity, it's ridiculous," Robert Sonin, president of the Graduate Students Association, tells CJAD News.
"The government is punishing the school for the choices of a few people."
Lucie Lequin, head of the faculty association, agrees.
"We have paid for that already and we will pay again because of the punishment."
Concordia would only say they received the minister's letter and is reviewing it so they can't comment for now.
Beauchamp issued a press release later in the afternoon saying that she told the university many times about her concerns regarding the series of departures and the impact on its budget. She says Concordia has shown a lack of rigour and has to face the consequences.
Beauchamp goes on to say that she's sending a message to other university officials: that sound management is synonymous with transparency and efficiency and that she expects universities to be administered efficiently and rigourously.
University president and vice-chancellor Frederick Lowy issued a statement late Friday evening saying "we understand and share her concerns. For that reason, on March 5, the Board unanimously adopted a resolution mandating a review of human resources processes for senior management. The review, to be conducted by an external audit firm under the auspices of the Board’s Audit Committee, will examine the processes and practices that were used in recent years with respect to senior management personnel who departed before the end of their contracts or with whom the university wished to end its contractual obligations.
"We will not hesitate to implement any changes resulting from this review that improve our human resources practices for senior management.", add Lowy.
"I would like to assure our community that Concordia is committed to prudent fiscal management and fully supports the external review of our human resources processes for senior management", says Lowy.
Flickr photo by Steve Drolet
CSU presidential candidate disqualified
Concordia Student Union presidential candidate Schubert Laforest has been disqualified from the elections for not being a registered student
Candidate Lucia Gallardo who is also of the A Better Concordia team was also disqualified.
They responded to the disqualification Sunday by releasing a statement denying the allegations. They also attached their MyConcordia class schedules to prove that they are registered.
If Laforest is not reinstated Melanie Hotchkiss of the Concordia Could Be team will run unopposed.
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