Economist Stéphane Pallage has won the race for the rectorship of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). The university’s board of directors announced on Friday that it had recommended his appointment to the Quebec government.
This announcement follows a nomination and consultation process that has dragged on since January. Three candidates were in the running for the post of rector of UQAM, including François Audet, professor at the School of Management Sciences and director of the Canadian Observatory on Humanitarian Crises and Action, and Lisa Baillargeon, professor at the Department of Accounting Sciences.
For his part, Stéphane Pallage was, until very recently, rector of the University of Luxembourg, a position he had held since 2018.
Mr. Pallage holds a doctorate in economics from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
He was a professor in the Department of Economics at the School of Management Sciences (ESG) at UQAM from 1995 to 2017, while holding the positions of program director, department director, vice-dean for research. then Dean of ESG.
Recall that a first race for the rectorship had not resulted last fall due to lack of consensus in the choice between the two candidates then in the running.
This time, “the Selection Committee unanimously recommended to the Board of Directors the appointment of Stéphane Pallage to the post of rector of UQAM”, indicated the university in an article published in UQAM News Friday.
The president of the University of Quebec Alexandre Cloutier quickly congratulated Mr. Pallage on Twitter following the announcement.
Avoid misery
In our pages on Wednesday, Mr. Pallage indicated that he wishes to prevent love for UQAM from falling into “miserabilism”.
“UQAM is not a bloodless university housed in an abandoned neighborhood. Without denying its issues and its challenges, we must mobilize positively to rediscover its ideals and allow UQAM to regain its place, regain its places! “, he wrote then.
His journey, however, has not always been without a hitch. In 2016, a conflict between UQAM and the management school was made public, notably on Radio-Canada.
Stéphane Pallage, then dean of the ESG, had made a public outing to demand more financial autonomy, and even independence, compared to the rest of UQAM. These requests had worried the UQAM Foundation, to which donors had expressed their concerns and stopped certain contributions, then reported the national media.