By McGill Reporter Staff
Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Christopher Manfredi has named Associate Dean of Students as the Interim Dean of Students while a replacement for the departing Andre Costopoulos is sought.
Zabowski, who also teaches in the Operations Management area at the Desautels Faculty, has been Associate Dean since August 2013.
Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Ollivier Dyens said Zabowski has made “very positive contributions in policy reform” during his three years as Associate Dean and he’s happy Zabowski is able to step in for as long as it takes to appoint a permanent Dean of Students.
Zabowski said he’s looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead, noting that he has already filled in for Costopoulos on a number of occasions when the latter has been away. Costopoulos is about to take up the post of Vice-Provost and Dean of Students at the University of Alberta.
A Faculty Lecturer at Desautels since 1990, Zabowski designs and teaches courses in Statistics, Operations Research and Operations Management at the undergraduate level.
He’s looking forward to continuing work on the policy side, including an update of the Charter of Student Rights, drafting a protocol for the eventual employment of a case officer in Student Services, and working with Human Resources to develop a clearer roles and processes for the University’s aboriginal staff.
He has also completed the first phase of a retooled student assessment policy, as well as preparing for the implementation this fall of a new process to manage exam deferrals which, for the first time will allow undergraduate students in most major faculties the opportunity to defer a final exam without supplying documents to support their request.
A native Montrealer, Zabowski came to McGill as a Commerce student in 1987 and stayed, completing his undergrad and an MBA in five years. He received the Faculty’s Distinguished Teaching Award for outstanding undergraduate teaching in 1997 and 2001 and the Management Undergraduate Society Teaching Award in 1998 and 2002.