The Concordian

Page 1

theconcordian Tuesday, November 16, 2010

arts sports

Brush strokes vs. pixels: summit looks at video games as art p. 12

Men s rugby fall short in Quebec finals p.17

We re all feeling the end of semester blues

Tips on how to deal with the stress P. 7, 8 Photo by Tiffany Blaise

music M for Montreal: our guide to the annual showcase p.14-15

arts Concordia grad is youngest Giller prize winner p.10

opinions Growing out the ‘stache for Movember or going pink, what’s better? p. 22

Volume 28 Issue 12

University tells CSU that advertising for all-you-can drink events was illegal CSU and ASFA implementing new security measures for cultural nights Evan LePage News editor After getting wind of the forthcoming cultural night event planned by the CSU and ASFA, members of Concordia’s administration approached the organizations with several concerns about the party’s security and legality. A major issue for the university administrators was the fact that the event was advertised as all-youcan-drink, something Concordia’s director of media relations says is completely illegal. “The Régie des alcools makes it very clear that you will lose your liquor permit if you do that, because that is encouraging irresponsible drinking,” she said, something student representatives were unaware of. Multiple cultural nights in the past year have been advertised as all-you-candrink events, although this is the first time Mota had

heard of one. The university also approached the student organization because “all you can drink events are extremely problematic and we have a responsibility to educate our student body,” according to Mota. She pointed out that binge drinking has been responsible for deaths at other universities. At cultural nights last year at least one fight broke out, though there were no reported cases of alcohol poisoning. According to Andres Lopez, the CSU’s VP of student life, the organization was also approached by the dean of students office, who had received complaints from residence administrators who had to deal with intoxicated students coming back to residence after these events. “These events end at 11 p.m. and people go back to the res, have parties, wreck the residence, get more drunk,” he said. “So I’m guessing the RAs are the main people who are pushing towards this. They just want to control it.” A representative from residence said “the simple fact that it’s an all you can drink, I don’t know if that’s a responsible thing to be doing,” but implied that residence officials wouldn’t comment in detail on the situation. In response to these concerns, the CSU and ASFA will be implementing new security measures at these events, starting with the Canadian cultural night tomorrow. Lopez said that he sat down with Jacques Lachance, the university’s acting director of security, and Luc Fillion, the security department’s event analyst, to discuss a new security policy. According to Lopez, there will be hourly patrols by campus security within the Hive to monitor the situation at the next cultural night, and three security agents have been hired to stay inside the Hive during the entire event. Lopez said that other measures to prevent over-intoxication will include enforcing the bracelet-marking system to monitor drinks, having fewer bartenders

See “‘Cultural nights...” on p.5

First academic plan in the works Jacques Gallant Assistant news editor

Maclean’s may not have been overly favourable to Concordia in this year’s university rankings, but provost David Graham says an academic plan currently being researched should provide a major boost to push the university toward the top. The plan is considered an integral component of the strategic framework adopted by the Board of Governors in 2009, which aims to have Concordia nestled among the top five comprehensive Canadian universities within the next decade. The university ranked 11th out of 12 on this year’s list. According to Graham, the academic plan, which he hopes to have adopted by the end of the school year, will especially focus on quality -be it that of academic programs or of faculty and students themselves. ‘’The plan is trying to answer the question of what kind of programs do we need to become a top comprehensive university,’’ he said. ‘’It will help us measure the quality of our programs and also give us tools to help us deal with a program that may be declining in quality.’’ The university’s chief academic officer explained that one way to measure the quality of a program is to look at the quality of its students. ‘’One way would be to look at how effec-

See “‘Document shoul...” on p.3

theconcordian.com


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.