Undergraduate events change with the times

In 1999, at the close of the Campaign for a New Millennium, the university inducted 15 new undergraduate scholarships, bursaries and awards. A total of 72 named awards were presented, many with more than one recipient.

Each year since, there has been an equal or greater number of new award inductions. This year, more than 18 new undergraduate awards will be inducted and the total number of named awards will rise to an unprecedented 108, not including those new inductions.

This growth has resulted in the happy dilemma of having to redesign our undergraduate scholarship events to keep and improve the opportunities for meaningful exchanges between donors and students. It’s good to provide ways for the students to meet the donors and tell them how important their support has been.

The impact of faculty and staff, departmental and university commitment to student support has also increased. About 30 awards have been established, including the Shuffle Scholarships, which have multiple recipients. Staff can be proud that these awards are supported by the university community alone.

Several years ago, a cocktail reception began to address the growth and increasing complexity of the Undergraduate Scholarship and Awards Ceremony.

This year, the reception has been renamed the Concordia University Community Scholarships and Awards Reception. It will recognize both the university community’s support for student scholarships and the recipients of those scholarships. The Reception will take place later this month at Samuel Bronfman House.

The Undergraduate Scholarships and Awards Induction Ceremony, held each year at Oscar Peterson Concert Hall, will follow the example of the School of Graduate Studies, and hold an Undergraduate Scholarship & Awards Breakfast for donors and recipients of externally-funded awards. This year’s Breakfast is scheduled for Nov. 14.

In spite of these significant increases, student support remains one of the top funding priorities. Individuals, departments or other university community groups that wish to establish scholarships or bursaries are invited to contact Maria Piccioni, Co-ordinator, Faculty & Staff Giving, at ext. 4979 or maria.piccioni@concordia.ca.

Conflict resolved through performance

Drama therapist Armand Volkas, who has worked with Holocaust survivors and children of the Third Reich, will bring his unique brand of healing performances to Concordia in the next Peace and Conflict Resolution event.

Volkas comes from San Francisco, where he established a reputation for his improvisational technique as a conflict resolution facilitator. He was invited to Concordia by Stephen Snow, co-ordinator of the Drama Therapy option (Creative Arts Therapies), who is en-thusiastic about his work.

Over two days, Volkas will conduct workshops with a group of Canadians of Palestinian and Israeli origin, and the resulting stories will be presented on Sunday, Oct. 26, by five actors in a playback theatre company. A public forum will follow.

Healing the Wounds of History, a public performance and forum, will be from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall on the Loyola Campus. Like all events in the Peace and Conflict Resolution series, this project is linked to a course (in this case DTHY 644), but everyone is welcome to the Sunday afternoon event.

Tickets are free, and after Oct. 14, may be picked up at the Sir George Williams Information Booth in the Hall Building or at AD 121 on the Loyola campus. They will be given out on a first come, first served basis, four tickets per person.

The first Peace and Conflict Resolution event has already taken place. Oct. 2 saw the first in a series of three lectures associated with a political science course taught by Avery Plaw. The lecture was given by Steven Lukes, a sociology professor from New York University, and was titled “Moral Diversity, Cultural Conflict and Relativism.”

The second lecture will be Nov. 6 at 6 p.m. in FB-070, in the Faubourg Ste. Catherine St., and will be given by John Kekes. Its title is “Pluralism, Conflict and Resolution.” The third lecture is scheduled for February.

One of the term’s major events is the Karl Polanyi conference, Nov. 12-14, featuring Ursula Franklin, among other speakers.

For updates on the Peace and Conflict Resolution series, which comprises more than 30 events over two years, please contact Laurie Lamoureux Scholes, at peace@alcor.concordia.ca.