.
When people first learn about what I do and where I work, I'm often asked, "Who are famous Concordia grads?" It's
not an easy answer, because we don't have anyone whom you'd call a celebrity, on the scale of, say, McGill alumnus
William Shatner or University of Manitoba alum Marshall McLuhan. Concordia, Sir George and Loyola do have scads
of terribly successful and well-placed alums in the upper reaches of the worlds of high tech, engineering, the hard and
soft sciences, and banking and finance; we have accounting and law partners, doctors, politicians, scholars and judges;
we have acclaimed artists and curators, dancers and actors, producers and writers. But folks like
former CIBC's president Holger
Kluge, S BCom 71, BCE Emergis's Brian Edwards, L BCom 71, novelist Annie Proulx, S MA 73, Stratford's Richard
Monette, L BA 67, and Canadian Supreme Court justice John Major, L BCom 53, esteemed as they may be in their
fields, aren't about to turn up on Hollywood Squares anytime soon (which, I think, is a good thing).
This magazine's Alumni Profile section regularly features grads who've achieved a level of success but aren't necessarily well known to most of us - mainly because unless you're in politics, arts, entertainment or media you're unlikely to find yourself in the pop culture lexicon. But in this issue we're showing off some of our bigger stars: TV journalists. They may not be household names, but they're certainly household faces. At any given hour in any given place in this country and, increasingly, the world, any one of the dozens of Concordia journalism graduates can be seen on television screens looking straight into the camera while reporting on the latest in politics, finance, the Internet, sports or whatever.
Writer Patrick McDonagh focuses on three j-school grads: CBC TV's Mark Kelley, BA 85, Global TV's Jamie Orchard, BA 88, and CBS's Gwen Tolbart, BA 95. But he could have also easily approached CBC TV's Jeannie Lee, BA 84, or Carmel Kilkenny, BA 86, GrDip 88, CTV's Scott Laurie, BA 82, Global TV's Paul Graif, BA 93, CNN's Shelley Walcott, BA 93 . . . the list goes on and on.
The fourth person profiled, relative newcomer Andrea Lopez, GrDip 97, works as a TV reporter and producer all the way out in Colorado Springs, Colorado, so she's less likely to be someone you've noticed before. Lopez contributes a first-person account of how she broke into broadcasting, with valuable advice for up and comers, some of which she herself received from Mark Kelley when she interviewed him while she was a student here. Like they say, what goes around comes around. And who knows? Maybe someone reading Lopez's piece will be inspired to become the next Peter Jennings, Pamela Wallin - or Gwen Tolbart. Stay tuned.
Also in this issue you'll find two separate pieces indirectly relating to the Concordia Students' Union (CSU). This has been an eventful year for the CSU - they've been embroiled in protests, alleged embezzlement, funding issues and a referendum. Look for a wrap-up of their year in the June issue. For now, Rector Frederick Lowy responds to an alumnus's concerns about the actions of the CSU and some student groups surrounding the Mid-East conflict (p. 6), and Dean of Students Donald Boisvert writes in the Last Word (p. 32) about both the necessity and problems of student unions. Boisvert holds a unique perspective because he himself was once president of the Loyola Students' Association. Like I said, what goes around. . . .
