Board of governors approves external governance review committee
President Fred Lowy opened the discussion of university governance at Concordia’s February 17 Board of Governors meeting with a written report that highlighted both the strong points of the overall university situation and the need to seriously address the governance issue.
He proposed setting up a small governance review committee whose mandate and membership would be defined by both the Executive Committee of the Board and the Steering Committee of Senate. He stated that he intended to bring the same proposal to Senate the next day. He also recommended a future joint meeting of the two groups and possibly a meeting of the entire Board and Senate.
The governance review committee proposal was the subject of over an hour of debate that culminated in a resolution that was passed unanimously:
Whereas Senate has adopted a resolution calling for the establishment of a special governance commission to review the governance structure of the University;
Whereas Steering Committee of Senate discussed how to implement this resolution and agreed to recommend to Senate at its February 18 meeting the establishment of an external governance review committee composed of a small number of members external to the University and that Senate designate Steering Committee to participate in the drafting of the mandate and recommendation of the membership of said committee in concert with the Executive Committee of the Board;
Whereas the Board Chair and Vice-Chairs are fully supportive of this initiative;
Upon motion duly made and resolved, it was unanimously resolved:
That, in response to the aforementioned resolution of Senate, the Board of Governors approve the establishment of an external governance review committee comprised of a small number of members external to the University; and
That the Board of Governors designate Dr. Frederick Lowy to draft the mandate and recommend the membership of said committee in concert with Senate.
In other business, the Board approved appointments to the Evaluation Committee for Dean of the JMSB: professors Steven Appelbaum, Sandra Betton, Emilio Boulianne and Michael Carney representing the John Molson School of Business; professor David Moscovitz representing the part-time faculty; Eva Ferrara representing the administrative and support staff; Mohammad Sabr representing the graduate students; and Abdullah Husen representing the undergraduate students.
It also approved additional appointments to the Evaluation Committee for the Dean of the School of Extended Learning: professor Martin Pugh representing the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, professor Linda Szabad-Smyth representing the Faculty of Fine Arts, professor Richard Schmid representing the Faculty of Arts and Science, professor Maria Peluso representing the part-time faculty, John Dickson representing the administrative and support staff, Robert Sonin representing the graduate students, and Teresa Seminara representing the undergraduate students.
Former Concordia student Peter Schiefke and former Concordia Student Union (CSU) President Amine Dabchy, representing Youth Action Montreal, invited the Governors to participate in Living Your Legacy, a summit they are organizing for April 28. Concordia University is a major sponsor of the event which will feature Kofi Annan, Stephen Lewis and David Suzuki.
A report on Engineering and Computer Science Dean Robin Drew’s report to the Board will appear in the March 7 issue of the Journal.
Related link:
• Board of Governors