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by Laurie Zack
At the November 18 Board of Governors evening meeting at Loyola, Provost Jack Lightstone announced that he had asked the Dean of Arts and Science to study the feasibility of establishing a
college of humanities and social
science on the Loyola Campus, based on the same criteria used in the recent academic and space planning exercises.
This follows the Board's recent decision to look at including such a college in the University's long-term space plan. Lightstone pledged to provide the Board with regular updates on the project, and hopes to see a preliminary report by late winter or early spring.
In keeping with recent jurisprudence, the Board passed an amendment assuring pension benefits for same-sex couples. They also approved a request to collect a 42-cent-per-credit fee (retroactive to the fall 1998 term) for membership in the Canadian Federation of Students from Arts and Science, Fine Arts and independent undergraduate students who are members of the Concordia Student Union.
Vice-Rector Services Charles Emond gave a report on advertising on campus. He emphasized that advertising has been limited to non-academic space and that all advertising conforms to government standards. The total revenue generated by this advertising is estimated at less than $200,000.
Executive Director of Human Resources Valérie Gagnon presented a brief overview of the Human Resources Task Force and the challenges facing the University's human resources units.
Rector Frederick Lowy reported that interviews for the position of Provost and Vice-Rector Research were nearly completed and that a public meeting with shortlisted candidates might be held soon. Reporting on the search for a Dean of Fine Arts, Lightstone explained that despite an extension of the deadline and a second round of advertising across North America, only the name of Christopher Jackson was retained. (See Jackson, this page.) The reputation of the Faculty and that of its Dean, as well as the closeness of the artistic community, explains the lack of qualified candidates. Once it became known that the previous Dean was again a candidate, many qualified candidates withdrew their names.
In closed session, the Board received a report from its ethics committee concerning the nomination by electoral college of Richard Bisaillon as staff representative to the Board. In the light of the report, it was announced in open session that the Board chose not to elect Bisaillon to sit on the Board at present. Bisaillon is president of the Concordia Union of Support Staff and the petitioner in the motion for authorization to institute a $71-million class-action suit against the University regarding the pension fund.
