There was a time when Shreyas V. Movva, MEng 19, doubted whether he had a future in top-class cricket. The batsman and wicket-keeper’s confidence was badly shaken after a difficult tournament match in his home state of Karnataka, India. Frustrated, he broke down in front of a teammate.

“There were a lot of hopes on me from the coach and the team’s selectors,” recalls the software engineering master’s graduate. “And I failed to perform.”
Redemption came soon enough when Movva scored 150 runs in the next match.

A century in cricket — when a batsman scores 100 or more runs — is a remarkable feat. That Movva did so with a legend of the game in the stands was the cherry on top.

“My father was a fast bowler and he used to tell me that Gundappa Viswanath was the finest batsman he had ever seen. He was there to watch his kid play — and I was smashing boundaries against him. Viswanath came up to me after the match and congratulated me.”

Like many competitive athletes, Movva prefers not to play prognosticator. But he feels good about Canada’s chances to qualify for the event, where they could face titans of the sport like India, England and Australia at hallowed grounds like Adelaide Oval and, with a capacity of 100,000 fans, Melbourne Cricket Ground.
“It’s looking very bright to me,” says Movva from a hotel room in Toronto, where Canada’s T20 squad practices. “We’re having a strong training session and we’re coming off a very good effort at the regional qualifiers in Antigua, where we were actually missing some players. We’ll have our full roster in Oman.”
It’s rare for cricketers from Quebec to qualify for Canada’s national squad. In fact, Movva is the first player from the province to make the cut in 12 years.
“Shreyas is one of the best in the country,” affirms Subrata Mandal of the Quebec Cricket Federation. “He reads the game well and has a real captaincy’s sense. That’s why he made the team.”

The critically-acclaimed exhibition Moyra Davey: The Faithful at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery marks the long-awaited return of Montreal-raised multi-disciplinary artist Moyra Davey (BFA 82).
The exhibition surveys Davey’s decades-long practice comprising photography, film and writing. It features early images of family and friends, her mailed photographs, as well as films examining the work of authors, philosophers and artists, notably her 2019 film I confess which connects American novelist James Baldwin with Quebec revolutionary nationalist Pierre Vallières.
The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) and curated by Andrea Kunard, senior curator of photographs at the NGC. In fact, Kunard first discovered Davey’s work in The Modernist Document exhibition held at the Ellen Art Gallery during the Mois de la Photo back in 1999.
‘Personal history interwoven with critical concerns on art’
The Montreal- and Ottawa-raised artist, who now lives in New York, is a revered figure in the art world. Her work can be found in major public collections, including at the Tate Modern and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A survey of her videos will be presented at the Museum of Modern Art in 2022; and the critically-hailed Moyra Davey: The Faithful — first exhibited at the NGC in 2020 — covers four decades of artistic production.

The results of a recent survey of Concordia alumni are in and the data is conclusive: graduates report a stronger sense of affinity compared to a similar survey conducted in 2014.
That’s not the only important takeaway. The results also suggest that the increased goodwill alumni feel towards Concordia compares favorably to other Canadian universities.
“This survey was designed to take the pulse, so to speak, of our worldwide community of 235,000 alumni and we’re thrilled with the results,” says Leisha LeCouvie, senior director of Alumni Relations. “They indicate that our efforts to address certain alumni needs expressed through the 2014 survey — whether it’s more targeted events or more personalized outreach initiatives — have paid off.”
LeCouvie, who oversaw the project for Concordia, was pleased by one data point in particular. “More than 90 per cent of respondents feel a lifelong relationship with Concordia is worth maintaining. That’s incredible.”
It’s all the more incredible given what’s transpired over the last two years, says independent market researcher Jerold Pearson. A pioneer in the university survey space, Pearson conducted both the 2014 and 2021 surveys. “It was great to see the needle move — and move so consistently — in the right direction in spite of the challenges imposed by the pandemic.”
This isn’t necessarily the norm, adds the former director of market research at Stanford University.
“I did a follow-up survey for another institution at around the same time and a lot of their numbers went the wrong way. I was a little concerned that the negative results might have been due to the pandemic. Because survey results don’t happen in a vacuum. If you’re feeling miserable, it can certainly color the way you respond to any question asked.
“A week later I analyzed the data for Concordia and saw the opposite — on many measures, things were much more positive. So if the pandemic has coloured people’s responses in any way, Concordia alumni have overcome that in a big way. This is very, very encouraging. Whatever the alumni relations team is doing seems to be working.”
What the alumni relations team did, most notably throughout the pandemic, was collaborate with various teams across the university to launch initiatives like CU at Home and CU Cares that strengthened engagement and affiliation, and demonstrated the Concordia community’s capacity for volunteerism.
“You have only to look at the recent outpouring of support for Nadia Chaudhri to comprehend how Concordia's feel about their alma mater,” says LeCouvie. “There’s an overwhelming sense that this is a special time for the university, especially as we approach our 50th year.”
LeCouvie stresses that the work’s not done.
“Our focus on alumni satisfaction is more resolute than ever. We’re going to continue building on all of this positive momentum.”
Here are some highlights from the 2021 survey of approximately 2,000 Concordia degree holders:
Graduates feel that the university values its alumni — 72 per cent, compared to figures that range from 57 per cent to 76 per cent at six other Canadian universities. 53 per cent are very satisfied with their student experience — compared to figures that range from 43 per cent to 48 per cent at the other universities.
65 per cent take great pride in their Concordia degree.
71 per cent of all alumni say Concordia’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are important to them.
Almost six out of 10 alumni (58 per cent) read or heard something in the past year or so that made them proud of Concordia.