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This article is about Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. For other universities named Concordia, see Concordia.

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

Contents 1 History 1.1 Sir George Williams University 1.2 Loyola College 1.3 Concordia University 2 New Buildings 3 Programs 4 Fabrikant Affair 5 Student Activism 6 Varsity Athletics 7 Club Athletics 8 Noted alumni 9 Awards 10 See also 11 External link

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 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 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 UQAM). 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 secularisation of Quebec's educational system (see Quiet Revolution). The two schools were merged in 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'). [1]

New Buildings

Concordia has embarked on a mission to develop and expand the quality of their downtown campus, and to revive the west end in Montreal. The development is set to conclude in about 5-7 years.

The university has also acquired the historic Grey Nuns property for $18 million. Built in 1879, it would alone double the size of the current downtown campus. Starting in 2007 and to no later than the year 2022, the school will move 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 school has recently completed and opened in 2005, the new Integrated Engineering, Computer Science, and Visual Arts Complex on Ste. Catherine Street between Guy and Mackay.

Concordia has also received an exceptional gift of the over 100 year old historical TD Canada Trust bank building, which stands at the corner of Guy and St. Catherine streets. The Toronto-Dominion Bank, has operated as a branch at the site since 1903. Building renovations are planned to start in 2005, and to begin using the new space in 2006.

Construction has started on the new John Molson School of Business (JMSB) 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: Arts and Science, Engineering and Computer Science, Fine Arts, and the John Molson School of Business. Students are 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 more than 70 programs leading to Master's and doctoral degrees, as well as a variety of 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 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.

The student body is extremely varied and represents an ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural cross section that could be said to be even more pluralistic than the country or even the city itself.

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

Although student activism could be said to be a natural part of campus life, Concordia has been known to be home to some very politically active students, several of whom are known both in local and national media.

While protesting and fiery debate are considered a staple of college life, heavy politicization of the Arab-Israeli conflict on campus has caused certain student groups to step up their political militancy. Tensions are exacerbated by the large representation of students from Middle Eastern countries and of Jewish origin as well as the presence for many years of a radical left wing activist student union.

The Hall building (the main building of Sir George Williams campus) was shut down on September 9th, 2002 in response to a protest by pro-Palestinian students. They were opposed to the visit by former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; who they felt was a war criminal. The protestors were especially concerned since they said that they were not given adequate opportunity to attend the meeting themselves. While the tickets were freely available, the protesters said that the organizing group had largely confined their publicity to the Montreal Jewish community.

There were indications prior to September 9th that the speech would face opposition. The organizers were warned by campus security against allowing the talk to proceed because of the politically charge climate at the university. However, it was decided to proceed despite the possible intimidation because of freedom of speech concerns. The protest itself lasted several hours, and some protesters broke several windows of the main building and physically harrassed people attempting to attend the talk.

The immediate result of the protest was the cancellation of the talk. The protestors were ecstatic at having prevented Netanyahu from speaking. Hillel, on the other hand, decried what they perceived as an attack on freedom of speech.

In 2003, a slate of moderates won control of the Concordia Student Union from the left-wing activist slate that previously controlled the union and was actively involved in the anti-Israel protests.

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 American 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.

The school 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.

Club Athletics

listed are clubs that have CIS accreditation, otherwise see Student Clubs and Societies

There is also a baseball team, which competes at the club level against other schools in Quebec, but the baseball team receives no money from the University. Furthermore, a new cross-country running team was established in 2004.

Noted alumni

Sir George Williams

• Rosie Douglas - former Prime Minister of Dominica
• E. Annie Proulx - author
• Mordecai Richler - author
• Alfie Roberts - political activist, professional cricketer, and Montreal community worker

Loyola

• Don Ferguson - Actor/Comedian
• Hana Gartner - journalist
• John C. Major - justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
• Georges Vanier - former Governor General of Canada

Concordia

• Melissa Auf der Maur - rock musician
• Win Butler - Founding member of The Arcade Fire, transferred to McGill University (BA '04)
• Nicholas Thorburn - rock musician
• Pascale Bussières - Quebecois actress
• Steven Cojocaru - fashion maven
• Mario Dumont - leader of the provincial ADQ party
• Clark Johnson - American actor
• Michelle Latimer - Actress on Paradise Falls (Showcase)
• Glen Murray - former mayor of Winnipeg
• Raymond Alfred Brown - college admissions guru; Dean of Admission Texas Christian University
• Josey Vogels - syndicated sex columnist

Awards

• Loyola Medal

See also

• McGill University
• Université de Montréal
• Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
• List of Quebec universities
• The Link

External link

• Concordia University

	Quebec universities
Bishop’s | Concordia | ENAP | ETS | INRS | Laval | McGill | Montréal | Sherbrooke | TELUQ | UQAC | UQAM | UQAR | UQAT | UQO | UQTR

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