CONCORDIA' Publications Mail Agreement No.40042804 Vol. 28, No. 12 http://ctr..concordia.ca March 18, 2004 Brief to Quebec urges increase in funding Bv BARBARA BLACK "Concordia's government operating grant of $178 million must be increased Concordia's senior 1,administrators to $248 million just to meet basic expens­ appeared before the standing committee es:• Lowy said. on education of the Quebec legislature Millions of dollars must be found to yesterday in a determined effort to get hire 318 full-time faculty over the next more funding for both the Quebec uni­ five years, hire additional staff to support versity system and Concordia. the growing enrolment and professorial At the request of the CSU, the universi­ corps, keep up with salary indexation, ty gave CSU representatives five minutes and maintain and expand urgently need­ of the university's 20-minute presenta­ ed teaching and research space. tion time to address the committee. The consequences of the ongoing Concordia's brief, called Building our funding shortfall affects the capacity of Future: The Challenge of Responsibly the university to support research and Harvey Shulman and Fred Krantz alternate the principalship of the Liberal Arts College. When they started, students thought references to Lenin Financing the Quebec University System, keep talented faculty in Quebec. It also meant Beatie John Lennon. Now, Krantz says, they don't even know who John Lennon was. supports the claim by CREPUQ, the asso­ leads to higher student-professor ratios, ciation of Quebec universities, that in overcrowding, and ultimately, an overall 2001, they would have needed another deterioration of the quality of education Liberal Arts College marks $375 million to meet Canadian stan­ and the teaching and research infrastruc­ dards. ture. The brief, presented by Rector While stressing Concordia's remark­ 25 years teaching great books Frederick Lowy to a bipartisan commit­ able accomplishments over the last tee of members of the National Assembly, decade during a period of severe outlined both the serious funding chal-· BY FRA NK KUIN and Science. lenges facing Concordia and the conse­ continued on page 8 The Liberal Arts College has found its quences of chronic under funding. At 25 years and counting, the academic place within Concordia, providing a unique partnership of Frederick Krantz and Harvey type of undergraduate education based on a Shulman has lasted longer than most mar­ core curriculum of the great books of riages, and by their own account, their Western civilization, from antiquity to the endeavour has survived against the odds. present. Its students are exposed to some of Krantz and Shulman are the founders of the greatest writings the Western tradition Concordia's Liberal Arts College, which cele­ has produced, as well as art and music. brates its 25th anniversary this weekend. There's a great demand for such general Alternating in the roles of principal and vice­ education, Krantz observed, noting that the principal, they are the only two faculty mem­ college receives hundreds of applications bers of the small college who have been there every year from all over Canada and beyond. since the beginning. It takes on about 60 students each year. "We had difficulty getting established "The college attracts a great many first­ because our colleagues didn't necessarily class students, who then go on to major in understand this type of program;' Shulman one of Concordia's departments;• he said. recalled in an interview. "We had to struggle As they were preparing to celebrate the through some difficult times in terms of cre­ quarter century of the college, Krantz and ating the college as a success the way it is Shulman sat down with Thursday Report to now:• reminisce about its origins, the curriculum, Having started with no permanent staff, and the question: what makes for a good edu­ and professors being "borrowed" for a year at cation? a time from other departments, the college Krantz: "Basically, there was a group of · now has a permanent teaching staff of eight. It is one of five colleges in the Faculty of Arts continued on page 8 Bridge builders:Seen at the annual competition, held March 5, are, left to right: Philippe Hamel, Christopher Hannan, Luc Bialowas and Adam Neale, of A-Frames Are For Losers. See page 9. •.in this 2 Video games: 3 Invisibility: 5 Poetic justice: 6 Fitness alert: Scholars study Kit Brennan play Librairian gives New facilities for issue hard-core gamers seen in Ottawa away collection both campuses Anyone can enjoy·Yiddish, says visiting scholar al heritage. And they really don't have to ry that became the primary destination for leading Yiddish be Jewish to love Yiddish, brought to the literary figures who had survived the Holocaust. New World by successive waves of "_Yiddish immigrants who came to the city, in their mem­ immigrants. oirs, take note on how lively the Yiddish cultural life is in "One of the key things in the area of this city, even in 1913, compared to other cities;• Margolis Yiddish today is to get younger people said. "You could walk down St. Lawrence Boulevard, The and young scholars to further the schol­ Main, and hear Yiddish spoken and see Yiddish signs. This arship we have, and not just scholars was something that amazed them:• from within the Jewish community but The March 10-11 conference reflected a renewed interest from outside who are interested in eth­ in the city's Yiddish legacy, in making it accessible to a nicity and culture and music and in the larger public. various areas that existed in the Yiddish "This conference focuses on issues of translation and world;' Margolis said during a break in transmission and the reinvention of Yiddish to the non­ the conference which drew more than Yiddish world;' Margolis said, noting that proceedings took 120 participants and about 20 speakers. place in French, English and Yiddish. She has such budding researchers Speakers included quebecois scholars such as the among the 20 students taking her Universite de Montreal's Pierre Nepveu, a well-known the­ course at Concordia, The Montreal orist of translation, Jean-Marc Larrue of College Yiddish Experience, and whom she Valleyfield, who has an interest in Yiddish theatre, and encourages to do their own primary Pierre Anctil of the Institut quebecois d'etudes sur la cul­ research. ture juive. Today, Yiddish is used only by a The conference also explored the influence of Yiddish on Rebecca Margolis shrinking · number of elderly people, the work of c~ent Canadian Jewish writers such as excluding the closed religious commu­ Robert Majzels and Concordia's Norman Ravvin. B Y SARAH BINDER nities ofHassidic sects, but it used to be the mother tongue Margolis, who got really hooked on Yiddish as an under­ of a lively secular world that produced numerous publica­ graduate at McGill, has been at Columbia University for the With her nose ring, short straight hair, and pale skin set tions as well as institutions such as libraries and schools. past six years and is completing her doctoral dissertation off by a stylishly all-black outfit, Rebecca Margolis may not "That was one thing that I found amazing in my research on Yiddish literary culture in Montreal until 1940. be your idea of a scholar of Yiddish, the lingua franca of - it was an international community, " said Margolis, her­ Her favourite Jewish writer is Mordecai Richler, for his East European Jews prior to the .llolocaust. self a product of Montreal's Jewish day school system. affectionately critical examination of a period that is her In fact, at 30, Margolis is already an expert on Yiddish "It was an incredibly fluid world, where through the field of expertise. Like most Yiddish scholars of her gener­ Montreal before 1940. She is currently a visiting scholar-in­ press and the postal system and modem transportation ation, she does not curl up with a good Yiddish novel for residence at Concordia's Institute for Canadian Jewish Yiddish cultural figures could travel huge distances - even relaxation. Studies and was assistant coordinator of the trilingual for us today, huge distances - back and forth between "Which is unfortunate, because there are fewer and conference, New Readings of Yiddish Montreal, held last America and Europe, read each other's works, hear each fewer people using Yiddish lite_rature for the purpose it was week at the university. other speak, correspond with each other extensively:• created, which was really entertainment or edification. It is her generation of scholars, and younger, who hold Montreal was a key centre of this world, with a cultural­ Most of us study it:' the best hope for the survival of the language's rich cultur- ly humming community in the early part of the 20th centu- Video games are a form of literature for sociologist Simon B Y S YL VA I N COMEAU interact:' types don't always match the reality of gaming experience. The project has already attracted scholars from UQAM "In terms of s<;>cial properties, some games are alienat­ Every day, millions goof off playing video games when and Universite de Montreal as well as Concordia, not to ing, and others help to foster communities. For example, they are supposed to be working. But for Bart Simon, video mention people from the game designer community. The one kind of game we are studying is massively multiplayer games are a serious subject for research and study. project hosts biweekly workshop meetings and an infor­ online games. Last month, the professor of sociology launched the mal (soon to be formal) speaker series, and maintains a "The most popular one in North American is called Montreal GameCODE project, a Concordia-based research research room with new computers and a library of EverQuest, a Tolkeinesque fantasy role-playing game.