CCSL celebrates those who enhance campus life

By Stephen Day

The Concordia Council for Student Life (CCSL) awards were presented last Friday at Loyola campus in front of a crowd which organizers said was one of the largest of recent years.

The annual awards honour faculty, staff and students who have gone beyond their normal responsibilities and made outstanding contributions to student life and services.

Awards for excellence in teaching were given to Axel Huelsemeyer (Political science) and Olga Overbury, the undergraduate program director of Psychology.

“I must have done something right,” Huelsemeyer said. Huelsemeyer’s active involvement with the Political Science Student Association and his open-door policy drove students to nominate him.

Overbury’s nomination called her the “axis around which the undergraduate program rotates.” “I always knew what I wanted to do,” she said, “I always knew I wanted to teach.”

Jeannie Krumel was nominated by student Melanie Anestis for being the “unsung hero” of the Political Science Department. Krumel is the department administrator.

Nancy Curran’s nomination said she did more than her job as events co-ordinator demanded. “She’s someone who deserves an award every year,” said Bilal Hamideh, who nominated her.

During her acceptance speech, Curran was on the verge of tears. “On behalf of the students, I’ll always be there for you,” Curran said, then paused and added, “and I’ll always be there for faculty of course.”

As for the students, presenter Ellie Hummel said she had never seen a group able to connect through “all the different levels of the university” as well as the nine co-ordinators of the Sustainable Concordia Project. The group says they looked at campus sustainability from three perspectives: environmental, social and economic.

Jocelyn Bedard and Jeannine Carter, from Concordia’s Design Art program, spent well over a year working on a series of maps for the visually impaired. The maps will allow blind students, staff and faculty to navigate around campus by touch. Bedard said they wanted to “change lives and design products that can help people.”

The Link’s new editor in chief, Anna Sarkissian, was nominated for the media award by current editor Steve Faguy, who said Sarkissian always put in more work than she needed to and was a source of “unending fun” at The Link’s offices.

Ezra Winton has worked hard with groups like Amnesty International at Concordia and the ÜberCulture Collective, organizing film screenings and other such events.

Melissa Gruber, the current Fine Arts Student Alliance (FASA) president and upcoming VP Internal of the Concordia Student Union took home an award, for her work for the Art Matters festival and FASA generally.

Annie Dumont was recognized for her involvement with Amnesty International at Concordia and the Anthropology and Sociology student union.

When John Bilbul became president of the Mathematics, Actuarial & Statistics Student Association [MASSA], he gave it a much-needed boost with events that ranged from career fairs to parties.

Shadi Hajjara, of the student group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), got an award for his role in making the group an active presence on campus and for presenting the Palestinian view in a fair-minded way.

International students nominated Gisella Lujan, president of the Concordia International Student Association (CISA), for just making their lives more down-right enjoyable. Her supporters were among the noisiest in the crowd.

Inam Malik, a PLUS mentor and teaching assistant in the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, was recognized for his work, especially with the New Student Program, and Firouzeh Nikpour-Naini, president of the International Ethnic Association Council (IEAC), got an award for revising the council’s constitution and increasing ethnic clubs’ involvement on campus.