Judith Woodsworth and some of the Concordia board members who may or may not choose to eventually find out why she left her position as president
I find myself, more than anything else, amused that everyone is focusing on Concordia University's Board of Governors in the wake of the sudden departure of its president, Judith Woodsworth.
When I was a student at the university from 2000 to 2005, I tried to attend as many of these board meetings as I could, to get an idea of how the university operates. It didn't take me long to figure out how things work there.
Like many other such bodies, the Board of Governors is largely a rubber-stamp organization. The big decisions are taken at the level of the executive committee, who presents them to the board as a fait accompli. Sometimes there is debate - particularly when someone outside the ruling clique has a problem with the decision - but the result of the eventual vote is rarely in doubt.
Strange definition of "community"
Concordia's Board of Governors is made up of 40 voting members. The largest group - and one which by itself forms a majority - is 23 people selected from among the "community at large". The others are a mix of faculty (6), staff (1), students (5) and alumni (3), each appointed by their respective associations, plus the president and chancellor.
A look at the list of those representing the "community at large", and you see the words "chairman", "president and chief executive officer" and "corporate director" a lot. They're all from the crowd you see at black-tie galas for hospital foundations (in fact, many members of the board are also on the boards of hospital foundations), not the ones setting up community gardens or organizing festivals or doing all the other stuff you think of when you think "community".
The biggest problem with this group is that it is de facto self-appointed. The board has a nominating committee, which recommends candidates to the board, which appoints them to a body called the Corporation of Concordia University (whose makeup is identical to the board), who then appoints them to the board. The "community at large" group forms a majority on each of these bodies.
The inherent problem with this setup has been obvious to the Concordia Student Union for more than a decade. But they control only four seats on the board. Occasionally, they might get support from the one graduate student, but their cause is always a losing one. Faculty, staff and the general public weren't on the side of the crazy anarchists.
Questions from unexpected places
The sudden departure of President Judith Woodsworth just before Christmas was the straw that broke the camel's back. Concordia's previous supposedly-permanent president, Claude Lajeunesse, also left well before his first mandate was to end, and also for reasons that were never made clear. Meanwhile, the university has lost a lot of other senior administrators over the past couple of years.
Now people are starting to take notice. Donald Boisvert, who was the university's dean of students while I was a student there, wrote a piece in The Gazette demanding an explanation from the board. Lucie Lequin, president of Concordia's faculty association, wrote a public letter to members (PDF) saying they should also demand to know why so much money is being spent forcing senior administrators to leave.
The situation has attracted the attention of the news media. Peggy Curran, The Gazette's universities reporter, is writing a piece every day or two about it. On Saturday, an article in the Globe and Mail. Chris Mota, the university's official spokesperson, has been working overtime the past couple of weeks doing interviews for TV and radio, trying to explain a statement that Woodsworth herself has reportedly admitted isn't true.
Meanwhile, that "community at large" group remains silent. The chair, Peter Kruyt, and the other members of the board have not been heard from. A complete blackout on public statements.
Time to shine some light
Clearly someone needs to step in and demand explanations. Unfortunately, the only body with the power to overrule the Board of Governors is the Quebec government, and they have shown a strong reluctance to do so in the past. We don't know yet whether this latest scandal will be enough for them to step in.
If they do, though, questions should be raised not only about the process for hiring and firing senior administrators, but about whether there is something inherently wrong with an organization that controls millions of dollars having a self-appointed board of directors. The government should investigate whether this is a good idea, or whether it is likely to lead to the formation of a clique, conflicts of interest, and the negative consequences that come with it.
Concordia, like all universities, is a publicly-funded institution. It needs to be responsible to the public.
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