Senate receives an update on Concordia’s real estate holdings
University’s librarian Guylaine Beaudry discusses the future of scholarly publishing.
President’s Remarks
In his opening remarks at the Senate meeting on November 4, Concordia President Alan Shepard extended his sincere thanks to faculty and staff members who volunteered at the recent Open House. The October 29 event was an extraordinary success, with a record turnout of more than 6,000 visitors.
Concordia continues to hold its own in university rankings, doing well in reputation, student satisfaction and innovation in Maclean’s University Rankings.
The third annual U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities saw Concordia ranked in the 650th position out of 1,000 universities across 65 countries worldwide. Shepard pointed out there are about 20,000 universities worldwide.
Individual programs are also doing well in rankings, he said, referring to Concordia’s placement in ShanghaiRanking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities for seven different engineering subjects.
Concordia’s Civil Engineering program placed within the global top 50, ranking 20th in the world — ahead of such institutions as Stanford and Cambridge.
The president celebrated the recent launch of Concordia University Press, one of only three university presses to be created in Canada over the past 30 years. The non-profit, publisher of scholarly books in English and French is the first open-access academic press in Quebec and one of just a few in North America.
The university has made a record number of research proposals this year to the Discovery Grants Program, with 93 submissions compared to 67 last year.
The program is administered by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
Over the past 15 years, Concordia has seen a substantial growth in scholarly publications of 157.6 per cent, according to audited data by the Infosource’s 2015 rankings of Canada’s Top Research Universities.
Finally, the president shared the news that the Board of Governors approved a proposal to create a new Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering. Senate reviewed and approved this proposal at its last meeting.
Provost’s academic update
Graham Carr, provost and vice-president of Academic Affairs, said he looked forward to the November 7 convocation ceremonies. This fall, more than 1,600 students are graduating from Concordia.
He also thanked faculty, staff and students for participating in the successful Open House, noting that several alumni came back to support their alma mater at the event.
November 4 marked a few anniversaries at Concordia, said Carr, referring to the fifth anniversary of the opening of both the PERFORM Centre and the Centre for Functional and Structural Genomics plus the 40th anniversary of the PhD program in business administration.
This program is offered by Concordia’s John Molson School of Business in affiliation with HEC Montréal, McGill and UQAM universities. More than 800 students have graduated since the program’s inception.
Carr thanked Elizabeth Fast and Charmaine Lyn, who have agreed to serve as special advisors to the provost on Indigenous Directions.
Fast, an assistant professor of applied human sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Science and Lyn, the senior director of the Office of Community Engagement, will lead the university’s response to the Truth and Reconciliation’s Calls to Action.
Presenting Concordia’s real estate portfolio
Michel Nadeau, associate vice-president of Facilities Management, provided Senate with an overview of the university’s real estate portfolio, the Master Space Plan, current and upcoming projects and challenges moving forward.
The Master Space Plan is updated every five years. A review is scheduled for 2017, which will include a consultation process with the Concordia community.
It will take into consideration the nine strategic directions and “first moves” as well as the projected growth in enrolment over the next 10 years.
Upcoming renovation projects include a new wellness centre on the third floor of the Guy-De Maisonneuve Building (GM), new engineering labs on the 10th and 14th floors of the Henry F. Hall Building and a new conference centre on the ninth floor of the John Molson School of Business Building (MB).
Nadeau said Concordia is currently at capacity. There is limited opportunity to construct new buildings. As a result, the university will need to be more efficient in the use of its space. He added that Concordia must increase the flexibility of how space is used and plan for multifunctional or multidisciplinary spaces.
Addressing the sustainability of scholarly publications
Access to scholarly research is key to innovation, and to Canada’s success and global competitiveness. However, the current commercial publishing model is unsustainable and is jeopardizing access to scholarly research, university librarian Guylaine Beaudry told Senate.
In her presentation, Beaudry summarized the major issues affecting universities when they purchase scholarly journals. For example, the five major publishers continue to price journals based on print models, despite the shift to digital production, distribution and collection management. Purchasing agreements force libraries to buy content they may not use.
While libraries have created consortia and have successfully leveraged collective buying power, it’s not enough, says Beaudry.
That is why Concordia is a member of the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN). The network represents 75 academic libraries across Canada, including world-class research institutions as well as innovative teaching-focused institutions.
CRKN has developed a toolkit for members to raise awareness and support on a national level within and beyond the university. The tools can be used in communications with internal stakeholders on the issue of negotiation priorities.
The network is also promoting alternative publishing models such as open-access publishing, the creation and maintenance of institutional repositories and library-supported publishing platforms.
The network recently announced that Concordia president Alan Shepard has been appointed chair of its Board of Directors for a three-year term, beginning October 20, 2016.