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Concordia University is a large urban university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, one of Montreal's two universities that teach primarily in the English language (the other being McGill University). Prominent faculties and departments include John Molson School of Business, Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science as well as departments of journalism, psychology, biochemistry, and exercise science.

Basic facts

The university has two campuses, set approximately 7 km apart: Sir George Williams Campus in the downtown core of Montreal (at Guy-Concordia metro station), and Loyola Campus in the residential west-end district of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. They are connected by free shuttle-bus service for students, faculty and staff.

History

The university traces its academic roots back to the 19th century, with the development of the Jesuit-run Loyola College and the YMCA-based Sir George Williams University.

Sir George Williams University

The first YMCA in North America was established at Montreal in 1851. From its early years, it offered evening classes to allow working people in the English-speaking community to pursue their education while working during the day. Concordia has continued this tradition by offering many night classes during the traditional fall and winter semesters, as well as the summer sessions. In 1926, the education program was organized as Sir George Williams College, named after George Williams, founder of the YMCA. It received a university charter from the provincial government in 1948. The first SGWU building, the Norris Building, was built in 1956, although the university continued to hold classes in the YMCA building until the construction of the Hall Building in 1966. The university gained international attention in 1969, when a group of students occupied the Hall Building's 9th floor computer lab (see Sir George Williams Computer Riot).

Loyola College

Loyola College was founded in 1896 as an English-language program of the Jesuit Collège Sainte-Marie de Montréal (since merged into Université du Québec à Montréal). It was originally located at the Sacred Heart Convent in downtown Montreal. The college moved into the present west-end campus in 1916. Although founded as a collège classique (the forerunners of Quebec's CEGEPs), Loyola began granting university degrees through Université Laval as early as 1906. By 1940, collège classique programs were gone and Loyola became a four-year university, although it never obtained its own charter, granting its degrees through Laval or, after 1920, the Université de Montréal.

Concordia University

The merger of Loyola and SGWU was recommended in 1969 by a royal commission, as part of the secularization of Quebec's educational system (see Quiet Revolution). The two schools were officially merged on August 24, 1974 under the name of Concordia University, taking the name from the motto of the city of Montreal, Concordia salus (meaning 'well-being through harmony').

Logos

Concordia University has changed its logo four times in its history.

New buildings

In 2001, Concordia embarked on a mission to develop and expand the quality of the downtown campus, and to revive the west end in Montreal. The development is set to conclude by 2010 (though construction is currently behind schedule).

The university has also acquired the historic Grey Nuns property near its Sir George Williams Campus for $18 million. Built in 1879, it would alone double the size of the current downtown campus. From 2007 to 2022, the university will begin occupying the building in 4 separate phases. The large property will house the faculty of Fine Arts and possibly the Concordia School of Cinema, and other departments.

The Integrated Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Complex at Saint Catherine Street and Guy was opened in September 2005.

Across the street, the 100-year-old TD Canada Trust building was donated to Concordia in 2005 by the Toronto-Dominion Bank. The university is planning to begin using this space in 2006.

Construction of the new John Molson School of Business Building that will be located on the corner of Guy and de Maisonneuve streets began in February 2007. The Quebec Minister of Education, Recreation and Sports, Jean-Marc Fournier, on October 30, 2006 announced an investment of $60 million towards the construction of the new building. The minister made the announcement during a ceremony at Concordia. The government’s $60 million represents about half of the total construction costs. Construction started on January 22, 2006 and it is expected to be complete by summer, 2009. The fifteen story building will house the JMSB’s 6,000 full and part-time students under the same roof for the very first time. For the moment, JMSB is located in the GM building on de Maisonneuve street and it is directly connected to the new Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts building.

Programs

Concordia has more than 180 undergraduate programs, divided into four faculties:

• Faculty of Arts and Science
• Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
• Faculty of Fine Arts
• John Molson School of Business (formerly the Faculty of Commerce and Administration)

Students are normally enrolled in one of these Faculties, but they may take courses from any of the others as part of their studies. Many programs also offer a 'co-operative' component, whereby students get work experience while they study.

In addition, the School of Graduate Studies offers about 70 programs leading to Master's and doctoral degrees, as well as graduate diplomas and certificates for professionals seeking to upgrade their knowledge and skills.

Students enter the university in September, or, in some cases, in January or May. An undergraduate degree normally takes three or four years studying full-time to complete, a Master's takes from a year and a half (three semesters) to three, and a Ph.D. is at least four years long. Certificates and diplomas usually take no longer than a year and a half to complete.

Fabrikant Affair

On August 24, 1992, Valery Fabrikant, a Mechanical Engineering professor, shot five colleagues on the ninth floor of the Hall Building.

Civil Engineering professor Matthew McCartney Douglass, Chemistry professor Michael Gorden Hogben and Mechanical Engineering Professor Aaron Jaan Saber died that day while Electrical and Computer Engineering Chair Phoivos Ziogas passed on a month later. Mechanical Engineering secretary Elizabeth Horwood recovered from her injuries.

Fabrikant was convicted of the murders. A memorial to the slain professors (four granite tables) was erected in the Hall Building lobby.

Student activism

Template:TotallyDisputed-section Concordia has made media headlines for issues involving politically active students. The first major incident was SGW Computer Riots in 1969, before the merger that created today's university. Concordia supports a vibrant student and community level civil society including well over over 60 academic, environmentalist, socialist, international development, anarchist, feminist, religious, and gay rights organizations, as well as cultural clubs and federal political parties. The level of politicization and activity of student groups is dependent on the group and its purpose, and varies according to changing membership from year to year.

In 1989, Concordia students voted in a referendum to directly fund their PIRG with a fee-levy. With the support of this social-justice organization, which now had stable funding and a staff of paid workers, student activism flourished in the 1990s. A number of organizations that are now based at the university have their origins as QPIRG Concordia Working Groups. These include The People's Potato, a vegetarian soup-kitchen; Le Frigo Vert, a non-profit natural food co-op; and Right To Move/La Voie Libre, a fully-equipped, volunteer-run bicycle repair workshop. All of these organizations are open to the general public and have strong representations of non-student community members.

Concordia students took an active role in the province-wide student strikes of 1996, which resulted in the renewal of a tuition freeze that is still in effect today.

As the 1990s progressed, student activism became more militant, coming to a head in 1999 with the election of the first in a series of radical slates to the Concordia Student Union. Under the presidency of Rob Green, a referendum regarding of another strike garnered 2,284 votes of support. This was an unusually strong show of support, as student governments at Concordia are often elected on the basis of less than 1000 votes in their favor. The strike lasted from November 3 to 5th and targeted a range of issues, including student representation in the university senate, corporate presence and advertising on campus, and government cuts to education. There were several demonstrations in which both protestors and police were reported to be injured.

Concordia students voted in favor of accreditation of their student union in a referendum in December 2000. As a result, the CSU is now legally accountable only to its student constituents.

Many incidents over the last several years have had their roots in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The conflict has been largely represented as a one between two student groups: the pro-Palestinian Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights and pro-Israeli Hillel. In general most student activism is conducted at a less high-profile level.

Netanyahu protest

On September 9, 2002, a scheduled visit from former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was cancelled after protesters clashed with police inside the building.

There were indications prior to September 9 that the speech would face opposition. Organizers were warned by campus security against allowing the talk to proceed. A security assessment done for the university administration deemed the event an unmanageable risk and recommended it not be held. However, a second assessment was later performed and the event was allowed to proceed, albeit with extraordinary security measures.

Before the speech was to take place, protesters inside the building stormed barricades which had been set up to block access to the building's lobby from the inside and were stopped at the escalator leading to the lobby by police in riot gear. Protesters outside the building began banging on the windows. For the duration of the standoff, ticket-holders pushed their way through a thick crowd of protesters outside the building and entered through a secured access point complete with metal detectors, and were then escorted to the auditorium where the lecture was to take place.

Approximately one hour later, a large exterior window separating the protesters from the police inside shattered, prompting a police officer to immediately discharge pepper spray through the window. The spray entered the building's ventilation system forcing an evacuation. At approximatrly the same time, a second window on the building's first floor, on the western side and away from police was broken when protesters threw a metal barricade into it.

The immediate result of the protest and subsequent evacuation was the cancellation of the lecture. The university instituted additional measures to avert future incidents, including the banning of any events related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as enabling the use of new student disciplinary rules in case of emergency.

Five demonstrators were arrested, and an additional 12 faced internal disciplinary hearings under the University's Code of Rights and Responsibilities

Student politics

The Concordia Student Union (usually referred to as the CSU) is the organization representing undergraduate students at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its membership totals more than 20,000.

The CSU was founded in 1979 from the merger of the Sir George Williams Day Students’ Association (DSA), the SGW Part-Time Students’ Association (PTSA), the Loyola Evening Students’ Association Inc. (LESA) and the Loyola Students’ Association Inc. (LSA).

The impetus for the merger was the previous merger of Sir George William University with Loyola College, which had taken place at the initiative of the Quebec Government in 1974, that had resulted in the creation of Concordia University.

The CSU was originally named the Concordia University Students’ Association (CUSA). It was incorporated in 1982 as the Concordia University Students’ Association Inc. The name was changed to Concordia Student Union Inc. in 1994 and the “Inc.” was dropped from the name in 2002.

In 2001, CSU undertook an accreditation drive, to legally represent all undergraduate students at Concordia, and was successful in its endeavour, though heavily opposed by the formerly free and accredited faculty undergraduate student associations for Engineering and Commerce.

The CSU is governed by its Council of Representatives (its board of directors). Voting members of the Council are elected annually by the undergraduate students of Concordia University, with seats reserved for representatives of the four faculties at Concordia University and for representatives of independent students.

There are 30 seats for voting members of Council: Fifteen from the Faculty of Arts & Science, five from the John Molson School of Business, four from the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, three for the Faculty of Fine Arts and three for Independent students.

The Council elects its non-voting Chair from the members of the CSU. The members of the Executive, of the Judicial Board and of the Senate of Faculty Associations are permanent non-voting members. The President of the Union, who is a member of the Executive, has the privilege of having the right to propose the adoption of resolution despite being a non-voting member.

The CSU is managed on a day-to-day basis by the Executive, composed of the President and a varying number of Vice-Presidents. The Executive is elected by the membership as a slate in an annual election held in March concurrently with the elections for Council.

The Judicial Board is appointed by the Council to act as a domestic tribunal to resolve internal disputes.

Athletics

Varsity athletics

Concordia University's athletic teams are called the Concordia Stingers. They compete with other schools in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, and more specifically, in the Quebec Student Sports Federation and the Quebec Interuniversity Football Conference. The university has ten varsity teams. In the fall, teams compete in Canadian football, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's rugby union and sport wrestling. There are female and male wrestlers on the team from year to year, however they compete as one team. In the winter, teams compete in men's and women's ice hockey and men's and women's basketball.

Concordia last won a national championship in 1999, when the women's hockey team beat the University of Alberta in the final game of the season.

Rugby

In November 2005, Concordia's rugby team came from behind to beat McGill 20–18 at the Percival Molson Stadium to take the men's rugby provincial championship—the school's first since 2001.

Club athletics

The baseball team, which operates in the Fall season, is composed of mostly elite and AA level players from summer leagues and competes at the club level against other schools in Quebec and Ontario for a national championship in late October. The Dalhousie Tigers won in 2005 and Concordia did not make the playoffs.

A new "Spirit Team" was also established in 2005, serving as the University's first ever Dance/Cheer Team, performing at many athletic games, and promoting the Concordia Stingers Athletes on campus. They are also known as the Queen Bees, a play on the University Athlete name, The Stingers.

A new cross-country running team was established in 2004.

Student life

Campus media

Concordia University has student-run media outlets, including newspapers (The Link, The Concordian and L'Organe), radio (CJLO) and TV (CUTV) stations.

Bridge Building Competition

The Troitsky Bridge Building Competition brings together engineering students from across Canada and parts of the United States. Teams of students representing their universities must build a 1-metre-long bridge using only regular popsicle sticks, toothpicks, dental floss, and white glue. A panel of judges grades the bridges based on originality and presentation while a hydraulic loading device is used to determine the maximum load and performance.

Notable alumni and faculty

Concordia's alumni and faculty have achieved fame for their accomplishments in many fields. Distinguished alumni include, a former governor general (Georges Vanier), a former prime minister of Dominica (Rosie Douglas), internationally renown authors (E. Annie Proulx, Mordecai Richler, Nino Ricci), political leaders and ministers, academics, scientists, actors, poets and musicians.

Awards

• Loyola Medal

References

1. QPIRG Concordia: About Us
2. Concordia's Thursday Report: Students Hold Protest
3. Montreal Mirror: Wild in the Streets
4. Concordia University Magazine:
5. Canada protests stop Netanyahu speech. 10 September 2002. BBC World News.
6. Concordia University Press Release. 31 October 2002.
7. http://ctr.concordia.ca/2000-01/Mar_15/18-CSU_Election/index.shtml

See also

• List of universities in Quebec
• The Link

External links

• Concordia University
• Concordia Student Union - Undergraduate
• Concordia Graduate Students' Association
• NFB documentary on Netanyahu controversy at Concordia
• Concordia Student Union Off-Campus Job and Housing Bank
• Dmoz page for Concordia

• Pictures of Concordia University Buldings

• Concordia University
• Educational institutions established in 1896
• Educational institutions established in 1926
• Educational institutions established in 1974