Concordia Appoints Graham Carr Interim Provost

NewsVince Morello — Published February 29, 2016 | Updated March 1, 2016 at 1:00am

Carr was recommended by President Alan Shepard to take on the role, in addition to his current position as vice-president of Research and Graduate Studies. He has been with the university since 2012.

The school has been looking for a new provost and VP of Academic Affairs since Benoit-Antoine Bacon will be leaving at then end of the semester to take on the same position at Queen’s University.

The Office of the Provost manages all academic affairs such as curriculum appraisals, faculty contract negotiations, and overseeing enrollment.

The new provost will also be heavily involved in the implementation of new strategic directions. Nine new directions will be guiding the school and its goals in the near future.

The directions, which have been in works for over a year, will soon be entering the second, more action-oriented phase next fall, where students will begin seeing the tangible effects.

The current provost, Bacon, previously said that the nine items take into consideration the school’s history and strengths, but he also acknowledged the fact that the school needs to adapt to succeed.

Concordia Student Union General Coordinator Terry Wilkings called Bacon a “big contributor” in the creation of the directions. He said his successor will have a difficult time implementing a plan they had no involvement in.

Concordia is working with limited resources right now because of budget cuts, but there is hope that the strategic directions can grow those resources. One of the directions is “Double our Research.” The university is hoping that conducting more research will help their international reputation grow, which may ultimately lead to better revenue.

If many of the directions sound familiar, it’s because they are. The last plan, “Reaching Up, Reaching Out,” had a lot of similar goals, Bacon explained in a previous interview.

The Link reached out to Concordia, but they declined to comment.

Correstion: The original story stated that Concordia has been without a provost and VP of Academic Affairs since January, when in fact Benoit-Antoine Bacon will only be leaving at the end of April. The Link regrets the error.