INTRODUCTION
This year was marked by many changes in the personnel who manage the Campus. Bertrand Daigneault left to become Director of Studies for the College. I became the Campus Director, having been Academic Dean. We hired Maya Prpic, formerly of Dawson College, to be our new Academic Dean. In April, Ginette Côté began her retirement and we engaged Marielle Denis as our Coordinator of Financial Services. Although this meant a difficult spring semester, a full management team is now in place and a solid team is being built.
ACADEMIC SERVICES
Some teachers retired this year, namely Fernand Tessier, Mathematics, Pierre Dagenais, CIS, and James Napier, Humanities. They will be missed by their colleagues and students. Fortunately, we have been able to attract highly qualified new teachers to the Campus.
The evaluations of the Languages Profile and the Fine Arts Program were completed and presented to the Board of Governors for approval. An action plan was also developed for each, based on the recommendations in the reports. In the case of Languages, Daron Westman, Hélène Trudel, and Rui de Souza provided leadership in the evaluation. In the case of Fine Arts, Daron Westman, Darren Millington and Susan Marsh spearheaded the evaluation.
The visit of the Commission d'évaluation de l'enseignement collégial in November as part of the Institution Self Evaluation went very well. At the summary session, Ms. Chené commented that the meetings had been very pleasant, and that they helped the CEEC team greatly in understanding Champlain-Lennoxville. She appreciated both the frankness and openness of the discussions.
Graduation and Awards
The graduation ceremony was held on Saturday, May 8th in the Centennial Theatre, followed by a wine and cheese reception in the theatre lobby. Two new teachers, Maggie McDonnell and Andrew Katz charmingly and skilfully emceed the ceremony. This new format worked extremely well, and participation in the ceremony was significantly higher than last year. This year music formed a large part of the ceremony - a student string trio performed as guests were being seated, the national anthem was performed on the piano by our music teacher, Cheryl Stroud and bagpipes played by a student rounded out the event. Many thanks to Student Life Coordinator, Richard Konicki, and student government secretary, Nancy Ticehurst, for the many hours they devoted to organizing this well received event.
Subject achievement awards were presented for each of the disciplines offered at Champlain-Lennoxville. Other awards were presented as part of the graduation ceremony, including the following:
The evaluations of the Languages Profile and the Fine Arts Program were completed and presented to the Board of Governors for approval. An action plan was also developed for each, based on the recommendations in the reports. In the case of Languages, Daron Westman, Hélène Trudel, and Rui de Souza provided leadership in the evaluation. In the case of Fine Arts, Daron Westman, Darren Millington and Susan Marsh spearheaded the evaluation.
The visit of the Commission d'évaluation de l'enseignement collégial in November as part of the Institution Self Evaluation went very well. At the summary session, Ms. Chené commented that the meetings had been very pleasant, and that they helped the CEEC team greatly in understanding Champlain-Lennoxville. She appreciated both the frankness and openness of the discussions.
Graduation and Awards
The graduation ceremony was held on Saturday, May 8th in the Centennial Theatre, followed by a wine and cheese reception in the theatre lobby. Two new teachers, Maggie McDonnell and Andrew Katz charmingly and skilfully emceed the ceremony. This new format worked extremely well, and participation in the ceremony was significantly higher than last year. This year music formed a large part of the ceremony - a student string trio performed as guests were being seated, the national anthem was performed on the piano by our music teacher, Cheryl Stroud and bagpipes played by a student rounded out the event. Many thanks to Student Life Coordinator, Richard Konicki, and student government secretary, Nancy Ticehurst, for the many hours they devoted to organizing this well received event.
Subject achievement awards were presented for each of the disciplines offered at Champlain-Lennoxville. Other awards were presented as part of the graduation ceremony, including the following:
Anne Thaler Memorial Liberal Arts Award
Jennifer Amyot
Camille Dion-Lafrance
Audray Fontaine
Ken Madokoro Memorial Fine Arts Award
Karl Fortier
Myriam Bédard-Marleau
Annie Turcotte Memorial Award
Chantal Ball
Richard Beger Memorial Award
Marie-Julie Bissette
I am pleased to note that James Slocombe (Social Sciences) was voted teacher of the year by the graduating class.
Under the guidance of the Coordinator of the Accounting and Management Technology Program, Hai-Binh Nguyen, three of our students won the Eastern Canada Award for their participation in the Wilfrid Laurier University Stock Competition held last fall. They were Karine Desindes, Audrey Desmarais d'Amboise, and Marie-Louise Lambert. They split a prize of $250 and the College has received a trophy which is the fourth one our students bring home in seven years.
The Governor General's Medal and the Board of Governors' plaque and cheque were presented to François Girardin (Science). Philippe Lamoureux (Computer Information Systems) received the Royal Bank Award, and Jean-François Bisson received a Millennium Scholarship Certificate acknowledging a $4,000 bursary. François Girardin was also one of the four members of the Physics Canadian Olympic team and won a bronze medal at the international competition held in Taiwan in the summer of 2003.
STUDENT SERVICES
Tena Montague, a much beloved counsellor and former teacher in Special Care Counselling, retired at the end of May. She and her husband have moved to Kingston, Ontario. Carole Dignam-Fournier, formerly of the St. Lawrence Campus, has joined our staff.
The new Champlain-Lennoxville web site ( www.crc-lennox.qc.ca) is now in full operation. Many thanks to the web site committee and its chair, Melanie Cutting, for leading this project to fruition. Special thanks also to Anthony Singelis from St. Lambert for providing us with a web site plan.
Lucy Doheny undertook most of the work relating to the updating of the Student Success Plan. With the absence of an Academic Dean for the winter semester, her efforts were especially appreciated by the Director. Thanks also to Melanie Cutting, Director of Student Services for allowing her to work on this project.
A new format and approach to the mid-term Progress Report was adopted by the Academic Advisory Council, and is now in place. Key features of the new Report are remarks on progress, e.g. Excellent, Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory, rather than numerical grades, and an indication on the Report of the percentage of total assessment that has taken place in that course, e.g. 15% of the total grade. Up to four optional comments are also allowed for each course, making this a true 'report on progress', rather than a mid-term grade.
The first Student Appreciation event was held in the Champlain Building. Members of the Student Services staff, spearheaded by Peter Bélanger and Jane Loiselle, provided hot chocolate, coffee and Timbits to a large group of surprised, but appreciative students. Such an event will now occur roughly twice per term, as a gesture of goodwill to our student population.
Recruiting continues to be a high priority for Lennoxville. Peter Bélanger has travelled to a number of regions of Quebec and particularly to English-language high schools. Many teachers are now enthusiastically involved in school visits and are representing us well. On-campus visits on Fridays have been drawing increasing numbers of high school students.
INTERNATIONAL EVENTS AND PROJECTS
The international scene continues to have a high profile at Champlain-Lennoxville. A number of events and projects involve many students, faculty, and members of the administration.
The theme of this year's International Studies activities was children. Throughout the year the relationship between children and war, children and poverty, children and the environment, etc. were examined. As in previous years this culminated in a daylong symposium in the spring, at which speakers from various groups with expertise in these topics shared their views with the community at large.
In November, the students in Amnesty International and WUSC, acting on their own initiative, organised a potluck supper to pay for a teacher in Afghanistan for one year. The event was a resounding success, with all of the money needed being raised through their efforts, together with profits from the Fair Trade Coffee sales and a generous donation by a faculty member to make up the difference. Full kudos to them for organizing a successful event.
Among the on-going activities related to International Studies during the term were the following:
- The Amnesty International/World University Service of Canada (WUSC) Club met once weekly all term. Along with weekly discussion and letter-writing for Amnesty cases, it circulated petitions protesting governments' failures to protect women from domestic violence at the symposium and at a publicity table.
- On Saturday, February 21st - 22nd the club hosted "The world we want - Canadians making a difference", a day-long WUSC regional meeting of six workshops, much food and fun. Murray Johnston was the driving force behind this event which brought speakers from Montreal, Ottawa and Sherbrooke to discuss issues such as cancellation of the majority of third-world debt, fair trade, and refugee protection. WUSC Canada provided a $1000 grant for it. Approximately one hundred people from as far away as Waterloo, Ontario and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as members of the local community attended various sessions throughout the day. It ended with an evening coffeehouse organized by students to raise funds for schoolchildren in Malawi.
- On April 7th, the club held an open forum on "The Meaning and Relevance of Sanctuary" with a Quebec judge and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of North Hatley guiding discussion of the movement to provide sanctuary to refused refugee claimants in churches.
The Bishop's/Champlain Refugee-Student Sponsorship Committee welcomed its second sponsored student, Tala Rod, from Myanmar/Burma in December (the first, Gad Milambo, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, having been welcomed in August). Many Champlain and Bishop's students are involved in raising funds for and in assisting in the adaptation of these students. For their part, Tala and Gad have contributed to campus life by speaking to students in Humanities courses about the situations in their countries and by participating in the symposium panel on education. Gad is enrolled in the Social Science program at Champlain and is among its more successful students. He has also become active in International Studies.
A new joint Champlain-Bishop's committee has launched an overseas volunteer pilot project, The Eastern Townships - Mae Sot Education Project, to send volunteers from our campus to provide ESL assistance to schools for Burmese refugee and migrant children on the Thai-Burmese border. While experimental at this point, if successful, the project will provide Champlain graduates with an opportunity to contribute to community building through education in a refugee community on the other side of the world as well as in our own community. It has the potential to provide a meaningful avenue for students who have had short-term overseas volunteer experiences and wish to continue this aspect of their personal development. This year, one Champlain student, Anick Charbonneau, and three Bishop's students participated in the project. Its success and its future will be evaluated and determined as the coming year unfolds. One local benefit of it is that it allows for collaboration between the two educational institutions on our campus.
International Studies is very healthy at Champlain - Lennoxville. The Peru Stage and its offshoot, the Tomorrow International Club, continue to operate, although the coordinator, Denys Amyot has now turned over the reigns to a group of three faculty.
In November, Darren Millington and James Napier led a group of twenty-nine students and faculty from the Champlain/Bishop's campus who travelled to New York City to observe the United Nations at work and to visit other sites of interest, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While there, they were able to view the General Assembly in session, working on the annual budget for UN activities for the coming year.
|
