Latest news with #UniversitéSainteAnne
CBC
10-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Celebration of life to honour founder of French immersion program at Université Sainte-Anne
Natalie Robichaud remembers how Jean-Douglas Comeau would involve the entire community in his efforts to help students succeed in the renowned French immersion program he founded at Université Sainte-Anne in Church Point, N.S. "He would go out and talk to the businesses and say if my students come to shop here, do not give them service in English," Robichaud told CBC Radio's Information Morning Halifax host Portia Clark on Thursday, sharing stories about her friend's life. Comeau died on April 27. He was 79. A celebration of his life will take place Saturday in Clare at Le Richelieu, an event venue he once owned. Robichaud said she got to know Comeau in the early 2000s when his son played bass guitar in a band she belonged to. She said Comeau often travelled with them, which included frequent trips to France. He later hired Robichaud to work as a teacher in the immersion program at Université Sainte-Anne. She said his program worked because of its different approach. Rather than simply sitting in a classroom taking notes, it was about "creating occasions to use it," she said. "So you know, the morning … you have a few classes and then in the afternoon you have workshops and then evenings were, every single evening of immersion was like a theme party or, you know, games or so." According to his obituary, Comeau grew up in Bear Cove, an Acadian village on the French Shore, and studied at Collège Ste-Anne, earning his bachelor of arts degree at the forerunner of Université Sainte-Anne. He then travelled to Paris and later Vermont to continue his studies. Teaching offer came with a catch When he returned to Nova Scotia, his cousin, the rector of Université Sainte-Anne, offered him a teaching position, the obituary said. But the offer came with the requirement that he had to "establish a proper French immersion school, oversee the installation of a new language laboratory, and create a theater company: Les Araignées du Boui-Boui." Comeau maintained an office at the university even after his retirement in 2017, when he was appointed honorary dean, and "you would still see him many, many times a year on campus," said Robichaud. During his time studying in France, he played baseball for the French national team, his obituary said. Robichaud said Comeau loved softball and baseball, noting the university staged an annual tournament that he would play in or watch and cheer players on. In 2018, France honoured Comeau's work and career by awarding him the rank of knight in the Ordre des Palmes académiques, his obituary said. While he was most recognized for his role at Université Sainte-Anne, Comeau was a driving force behind a thriving theatre scene back in the day in Clare, Robichaud said. He joined Mermaid Theatre in Wolfville as an actor, said his obituary, which also noted he "produced more than 39 television shows, as an actor, for the Nova Scotia Department of Education, in the Radio-Canada studios in Halifax." "So he really had not only for the French language, but for the arts and culture in general, had a really big passion for that," Robichaud said. The location for Saturday's celebration of Comeau's life is appropriate, she said, because it is taking place at a former social club he purchased in the early 2000s and operated as a community space that people could rent to host events.
CBC
18-03-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Faculty members, students pan Houston government's university restructuring plans
Faculty members and students are concerned changes being proposed by the Houston government could have severe consequences for Nova Scotia's 10 universities. Six of the seven people who appeared Tuesday before the Nova Scotia legislature's new public bills committee worried the changes proposed in Bill 12 would give the province too much control over what universities teach and what research they do. The proposed law would give the province — a key funding partner — greater control over university governance, the power to force universities deemed to be in financial trouble to come up with a revitalization plan, and the option of withholding funding if it were not happy with those plans. Peter McInnis, the president of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, which represents 75,000 members across Canada, warned committee members the process could result in fundamental changes. "Revitalization sounds perhaps innocuous or anodyne," McInnis said. "Like a trip to a day spa. But in reality, this revitalization could be severe for several reasons, including closing or amalgamating programs or the abrogation of existing collective agreements." McInnis said the Nova Scotia government was granting itself "unique" powers over universities. "This is a power accorded to no other province and would force universities to restructure according to government directions," he said. Cathy Conrad, president of the Saint Mary's University Faculty Union, said the proposal was already creating turmoil within her university. "Just yesterday, I was in a meeting with senior administrators at my university who have put pause on operations that are critical to engaging with equity, diversity and inclusion on our board and on search committees for senior academic members," Conrad told the committee. "Because in their opinion, we can't talk about anything until we see what's happening with Bill 12, because it's going to turn us upside down and inside out." Darryl Whetter, speaking on behalf of the association of university professors and librarians at Université Sainte Anne, called the bill an attempt "to create Soviet-style political control of research and teaching." Student leaders also sounded the alarm, suggesting provisions in the bill giving cabinet greater control over research grants were an attack on academic freedom, a concept Dalhousie University student Maren Mealy called "a cornerstone of higher education." "The bill gives the minister of advanced education the sole power to set provincial research priorities, requiring Research Nova Scotia to align its work with those priorities or risk losing funding," said Mealy. "This risks stifling academic freedom and devaluing research that doesn't align with whatever the government decides are its interests." Nova Scotia's auditor general recently issued a report critical of the lack of control over public funding to universities. A former senior bureaucrat was the lone voice Tuesday in support of the government's attempt to gain greater control over the money it gives universities. Former deputy minister Rick Williams told the committee of his frustrations dealing with the universities during his time in the senior government post between 2009 and 2013. "One issue that took a lot of my time over the four years was the state of the university system," said Williams. "As in 2010, we today confront a difficult reality — every one of our universities is too big to fail in its local community. "I support the government's intention to improve accountability and exercise more direct influence over decision-making in individual schools." But rather than current plans, Williams urged the government to establish a "planning process" similar to the 2014 Ivany commission on revitalizing Nova Scotia's economy. The aim would be to develop "a shared vision for a financially sustainable higher education system."
