Board of Governors and Senate highlights: May 2025

The open session of the May 15 Board of Governors meeting began with President Graham Carr informing Board members of a vandalism incident that occurred at the GM Building early that morning. He reiterated that there is “no justification” for such attacks on a public institution, which he said “only reinforce our motivation to model respectful behaviour”.

At the Senate meeting, on May 16, the president also denounced an act of antisemitic vandalism directed at the Azrieli Institute for Israel Studies last month. The SPVM hate crimes unit is investigating that incident.

Celebrating the class of 2025 and recent successes

The president announced that between 6,130 and 6,350 students are expected to graduate this spring, which is on par with the number who graduated in spring 2024.

He also highlighted a few recent achievements by members of the Concordia community:

• The John Molson School of Business has obtained the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) accreditation, which only 10 other Canadian business schools have earned. This recognition will further raise the international profile of JMSB, which now stands among the fewer than one per cent of business schools globally to have both the EQUIS accreditation and that of the U.S.-based Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The president thanked the staff who were involved in the EQUIS accreditation process.
• The 2025 Alumni Recognition Awards, held on May 13, honoured 12 outstanding members of the Concordia community. The honourees included Kenneth Woods, whose Kenneth Woods Portfolio Management Program celebrates its 25^th anniversary this year. The John Molson School program, which enables students to manage a real investment portfolio in real time, has become a model of experiential business education.
• Concordia graduate Isabelle Dessureault has been named CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Montreal. Dessureault will replace Michel Leblanc, who has been “an ardent champion for higher education, for the anglophone universities and for Montreal as a university city,” Carr said.
• Fourteen Concordia graduates were elected to Parliament in the last federal election, including Mandy Gull-Masty, BA 06, MA 08. The former grand chief of the Cree Nation of Eeyou Istchee became the first Indigenous person to be appointed Minister of Indigenous Services. The president mentioned that Canadian universities are looking forward to collaborating with the new government, including in areas such as immigration, the alignment of research with government priorities, as well as around potential initiatives to attract scholars and students from the United States.
• From May 5 to 9, Concordia was co-host, with École de technologie supérieure, of the 92^nd Acfas conference, the largest interdisciplinary conference in French in the world. The president thanked in particular Véronique Pépin, dean of the School of Health, Martin Lefebvre, chair of the Department of Cinema, and faculty member Sylvia Kairouz, from the Department of Sociology, who led Concordia’s participation in the conference.
• The Senior Women Academic Administrators of Canada Conference was held at Concordia on May 14 to 16. At Senate, Carr thanked Sandra Gabriele, vice-provost for innovation in teaching and learning, for her role in bringing the event to the university as well as for her contributions during her time at Concordia. Gabriele leaves Concordia this summer for a senior academic role at another university.

Institutional announcements

• On May 6 at the Sommet Climat Montréal, Concordia announced a strategic collaboration agreement with Énergir and Hydro-Québec to explore and implement renewal energy solutions at Loyola Campus. The “game-changing” initiative, part of Concordia’s PLAN/NET ZERO, “is truly about breaking silos between different enterprises and knowledge keepers, to foster and scale innovation with impact,” Carr said.
• On April 25, the Concordia University Inter-generational Fund (CUiF) announced that it had successfully completed the transition of its investment portfolio to 100% sustainable investments. The president presented this achievement at the Sustainable Finance Summit, held on May 13 to 15 in Montreal, “a great opportunity to showcase why Concordia’s foundation is so well-regarded as a leader and an innovator, including with respect to transparency, in this sphere,” he said.
• To Senate, Carr spoke about the Collaborative Centres on Energy and its Transition securing $6.2M in research funding. The announcement was made on campus earlier that day by Christopher Skeete, Minister for the Economy, Minister Responsible for the Fight Against Racism and Minister Responsible for the Laval Region.

Court decision in tuition policy legal challenge

On April 24, the Superior Court of Quebec ruled in favour of Concordia and McGill in their legal challenge of the government’s changes to tuition fees for out-of-province students, giving the government nine months to propose a revised approach. The judge also struck down with immediate effect the requirement that 80 per cent of students achieve an intermediate level of French.

The president called the ruling a “moral victory” but added that lasting damage has already been done in terms of plummeting registrations from the rest of Canada and abroad and the associated loss of revenue. The suit itself was also costly, but “the principles at issue matter and I have no regrets that we drew a line in the sand to defend the autonomy of Concordia and the important contribution we make, and want to continue to make to this society.”

Carr thanked all those within and outside Concordia who supported the difficult decision to launch the legal challenge of the government policy changes. He commended the work done by the many staff involved in the file, from communications and government relations to the legal and finance teams, also thanking the external legal team.  

Approval of budget 2025-2026

At Senate, Carr presented an overview of the university’s operating budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, which was approved by the Board the previous evening.

Concordia has reached a “tipping point”, he said, as he explained in his message to the community on the 2025-2026 budget. For the first time, overall revenue is projected to decline year over year. This is due partly to a drop in enrolment resulting from government policies. But also, the government of Quebec has frozen university funding for this year and next, not even covering increased costs due to inflation and salary increases.

To meet the approved deficit of $31.5M for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, Concordia must achieve some combination of $53M in savings or new revenue. Cost-reduction measures implemented in the past couple of years will be maintained. Additionally, all units will be asked to achieve an additional 7.2 per cent reduction of their expenses.

With a widening gap between expenses and revenue, Concordia is now in “truly uncharted territory”, Carr said. “We have to think creatively about how to generate new sources of revenue.” The president added that he has asked Faye Diamantoudi, dean of graduate studies, to take on a new role as executive lead on business development and revenue generation. “We will have to be bold and courageous and take some risks so we can continue to thrive and earn the title of next-generation university,” he concluded.

Motions passed at Senate

Commitment to Open Science and Open Scholarship:

• Senators approved a resolution aimed at supporting the implementation of Open Science practices at Concordia. The resolution stems from the work and the recommendations of Concordia’s Open Science Working Group. It is not prescriptive; its aim is to signal Concordia’s commitment to Open Science values, without placing additional obligations on individual researchers, faculty or trainees. In 2010, Concordia became the first university in Canada to endorse Open Access. It will host the 1st Canadian Conference on Open Science and Open Scholarship in October 2025.

School of Health Council:

• Senate approved modifications to the membership and the powers of the Council of the School of Health.