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Concordia University is a large urban university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, one of Montreal's two universities that teach primarily in the English language (the other is McGill University). The university has two campuses, set approximately 7 km apart: Sir George Williams Campus in the downtown core of Montreal (at Guy-Concordia metro station), and Loyola Campus in the residential west-end district of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. They are connected by free shuttle-bus service for students, faculty and staff.

History

The university traces its academic roots back to the early 20th century, with the development of the Jesuit-run Loyola College and the YMCA-based Sir George Williams University.

Sir George Williams University

The Montreal YMCA was established in 1851. From its early years, it offered evening classes to allow working people in the English-speaking community to pursue their education while working during the day. Concordia has continued this tradition by offering many night classes during the traditional fall and winter semesters, as well as the summer sessions. In 1926, the education program was organized as Sir George Williams College, named after George Williams, founder of the YMCA. It received a university charter from the provincial government in 1948. The first SGWU building, the Norris Building, was built in 1956, although the university continued to hold classes in the YMCA building until the construction of the Hall Building in 1966. The university gained international attention in 1969, when a group of students occupied the Hall Building's 9th floor computer lab (see Sir George Williams Computer Riot).

Loyola College

Loyola College was founded in 1896 as an English-language program of the Jesuit Collège Sainte-Marie (since merged into Université du Québec à Montréal). It was originally located at the Sacred Heart Convent in downtown Montreal. The college moved into the present west-end campus in 1916. Although founded as a collège classique (the forerunners of Quebec's CEGEPs), Loyola began granting university degrees through Université Laval as early as 1906. By 1940, collège classique programs were gone and Loyola became a four-year university, although it never obtained its own charter, granting its degrees through Laval or, after 1920, the Université de Montréal.

Concordia University

The merger of Loyola and SGWU was recommended in 1969 by a royal commission, as part of the secularization of Quebec's educational system (see Quiet Revolution). The two schools were officially merged on August 24, 1974 under the name of Concordia University, taking the name from the motto of the city of Montreal, Concordia salus (meaning 'well-being through harmony'). *

New Buildings

In 2001, Concordia embarked on a mission to develop and expand the quality of the downtown campus, and to revive the west end in Montreal. The development is set to conclude by 2007 (though construction is currently behind schedule). *

The university has also acquired the historic Grey Nuns property near its Sir George Williams Campus for $18 million. Built in 1879, it would alone double the size of the current downtown campus. From 2007 to 2022, the university will begin occupying the building in 4 separate phases. The large property will house the faculty of Fine Arts and possibly the Concordia School of Cinema, and other departments.

The Integrated Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Complex at Saint Catherine Street and Guy was opened in September 2005.

Across the street, the 100-year-old TD Canada Trust building was donated to Concordia in 2005 by the Toronto-Dominion Bank. The university is planning to begin using this space in 2006.

Construction is also planned on the new John Molson School of Business Building that will be located on the corner of Guy and de Maisonneuve streets. The cost of construction on the structure alone is $60 million. The building is expected to be finished in 2008.

Programs

Concordia has more than 180 undergraduate programs, divided into four faculties:

Students are normally enrolled in one of these Faculties, but they may take courses from any of the others as part of their studies. Many programs also offer a 'co-operative' component, whereby students get work experience while they study.

In addition, the School of Graduate Studies offers about 70 programs leading to Master's and doctoral degrees, as well as graduate diplomas and certificates for professionals seeking to upgrade their knowledge and skills.

Students enter the university in September, or, in some cases, in January or May. An undergraduate degree normally takes three or four years studying full-time to complete, a Master's takes from a year and a half (three semesters) to three, and a Ph.D. is at least four years long. Certificates and diplomas usually take no longer than a year and a half to complete.

Fabrikant Affair

On August 24, 1992, Valery Fabrikant, a Mechanical Engineering professor, shot five colleagues on the ninth floor of the Hall Building. Civil Engineering professor Matthew McCartney Douglass, Chemistry professor Michael Gorden Hogben and Mechanical Engineering Professor Aaron Jaan Saber died that day while Electrical and Computer Engineering Chair Phoivos Ziogas passed on a month later. Mechanical Engineering secretary Elizabeth Horwood recovered from her injuries. Fabrikant was convicted for the murders. A memorial to the slain professors (four granite tables) was erected in the Hall Building lobby.

Student activism

Concordia has made local, national and international media headlines for issues involving politically active students. This has been true since the SGW Computer Riots in 1969 before the merger that created today's university. Concordia supports a vibrant student and community level civil society including well over over 60 academic, environmentalist, socialist, international development, anarchist, feminist, religious, gay rights organizations, as well as cultural clubs and federal political parties. The level of politicization and activity of student groups is dependent on the group and its purpose, and varies according to changing membership from year to year.

The biggest issue in the last several years, however, has had its roots in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Certain student groups stepped-up political militancy on campus starting in 2000 at the beginning of the second Intifadah. Tensions were exacerbated by the high representation of students of Arab and Jewish origin as well as the presence for many years of an activist student union openly sympathetic to the Palestinian side of the conflict. The conflict has been largely represented as a conflict between two high-profile groups: the pro-Palestinian Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights and pro-Israeli Hillel, but in general most student activism is conducted at a less high-profile level.

Netanyahu protest

On September 9, 2002, a scheduled visit from former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was cancelled after protesters against the speech clashed with police inside the building.

There were indications prior to September 9th that the speech would face opposition. Organizers were warned by campus security against allowing the talk to proceed because of the politically charged climate at the university. A security assessment done for the university administration deemed the event an unmanageable security risk and recommended it not be held. However, a second assessment was later performed (the university said this was because of new information it had received, while protesters claimed the university was pressured by the Montreal Jewish community), and the event was allowed to proceed, albeit with extraordinary security measures.

Some protesters said they were determined to use any means necessary to stop the speech, alleging that Netanyahu was a war criminal. Protesters also complained they were not given adequate opportunity to attend the scheduled speech, and that they could not get tickets from Hillel, the student group sponsoring the speech. Hillel later disputed this, saying tickets were available to the public.

Before the speech was to take place, protesters inside the building stormed barricades which had been setup to block access to the building's lobby from inside. They took control of the building's mezzanine, but were stopped at the escalator leading to the lobby by police in riot gear. Meanwhile, protesters outside the building began banging on windows in support of those inside. For the duration of the standoff, ticket-holders pushed their way through a thick crowd of protesters outside the building (some were physically assaulted or spat upon), entered through a secured access complete with metal detectors, and were escorted to the auditorium, exchanging verbal insults and gestures with the protesters inside.

After about an hour, a large exterior window separating banging protesters from police inside broke, prompting a police officer to immediately discharge pepper spray through the window. Due to a difference in atmospheric pressure, the spray was sucked back into the building and into the ventilation system. The pepper spray caused protesters inside to begin to flee, followed quickly by police. Protesters began throwing large objects at police and spectators attending the speech (like plastic chairs and water bottles), and one discharged a fire extinguisher. The pepper spray and fire extinguisher contents then entered the building's ventilation system, forcing it to be evacuated.

At about the same time, a second window on the building's first floor, on the western side of the building and away from police, was broken when protesters threw a metal barricade into it.

The immediate result of the protest (and evacuation) was the cancellation of the talk. Hillel Concordia and the university later decried what they said as an attack on freedom of speech, and the university instituted additional measures afterward to deal with the situation, including the banning of events related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as enabling new student disciplinary rules to be used in case of emergency.

A number of protesters were arrested and charged in the aftermath of the protest. One of the most visible, Jaggi Singh, had the charges dismissed against him three years later. *

Student politics

The two major parties that competed in the 2006 elections were the winners Experience, and the current opposition Conscious.

Concordia Student Union elections take place at the end of March every year to select students to the executive, CSU council, university Senate as well as Concordia's Board of Governors for the following academic year. There are thirty student councillors in total:

Allotment of the seats on the CSU council is based on the size of each faculty.

  • Arts and Science: 15 seats
  • John Molson School of Business: 5 seats
  • Engineering and Computer Science: 4 seats
  • Fine Arts: 3 seats
  • Independent students: 3 seats

Elections held in March of 2006 have left Experience and allies with 21 council seats and control of the executive and Conscious with 9 following a recount.

Athletics

Varsity athletics

Concordia University's athletic teams are called the Concordia Stingers. They compete with other schools in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, and more specifically, in the Quebec Student Sport Federation and the Quebec Interuniversity Football Conference. The university has ten varsity teams. In the fall, teams compete in Canadian football, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's rugby football and sport wrestling. There are female and male wrestlers on the team from year to year, however they compete as one team. In the winter, teams compete in men's and women's ice hockey and men's and women's basketball.

Concordia last won a national championship in 1999, when the women's hockey team beat the University of Alberta in the final game of the season.

Rugby
In November 2005, Concordia's rugby team came from behind to beat McGill 20-18 at the Percival Molson Stadium to take the men's rugby provincial championship—the school's first since 2001.

Club athletics

The baseball team, which operates in the Fall season, is comprised of mostly elite and AA level players from summer leagues and competes at the club level against other schools in Quebec and Ontario for a national championship in late October. The Dalhousie Tigers won in 2005 and Concordia did not make the playoffs.

A new "Spirit Team" was also established in 2005, serving as the University's first ever Dance/Cheer Team, performing at many athletic games, and promoting the Concordia Stingers Athletes on campus. They are also known as the Queen Bees, a play on the University Athlete name, The Stingers.

A new cross-country running team was established in 2004.

Student life

Fraternities and sororities

Concordia University is home to local and international fraternities and sororities.

The most notable local fraternity is Mu Omicron Zeta commonly referred to as "MOZ" (pronounced like "moes"). The fraternity was founded in 1992 by four students, two of whom were students at Concordia University, while the other two were students at the other universities in Montreal. This particular fraternity is unique in that it does not retain affiliation with merely one school but rather is a member of the Greek councils at both Concordia and McGill.

The Zeta Tau Omega sorority (ZTΩ) is the only active local sorority left on campus. Based mainly in Concordia, the sorority was founded in 1968 by six(6) women of Loyola College and now has a large network of sisters, commonly referred to as ZETs (pronounced as zaytes). As a local sorority, they govern themselves, with a Board of Control outside of their active chapter.

The Delta Phi Epsilon Sorority was founded in 1994 at Concordia University; it is one of the many chapters located around Canada and the United States.

Concordia is also home to a chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) and another local fraternity; The Order of Omicron.

Bridge Building Competition

The Troitsky Bridge Building Competition brings together engineering students from across Canada and parts of the United States. Students are grouped into teams representing their universities, and are given the task of building a 1-metre-long bridge using only regular (dry) popsicle sticks, dental floss, and white glue. The bridges are judged on aesthetic value by a panel of judges and on performance by using a hydraulic press to determine how much pressure is necessary at the centre of the bridge to cause structural failure.

Notable alumni

Sir George Williams

and Montreal community worker
  • Rod Sykes - Former leader of the Alberta Social Credit Party and
    • former Mayor of Calgary
    Loyola

    Concordia

    Awards

    See also

    External links

    Education in Montreal | Universities in Quebec | Concordia University | Educational institutions established in 1896 | Educational institutions established in 1926 | Educational institutions established in 1974

    Concordia-Universität | Université Concordia | Concordia-universiteit | 协和大学

     

    This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Concordia University".

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